Of Mutants, Snakes, and Bloodsuckers
by Franciscan Gypsy
Summary: This was written about 6 years ago or so, back when I was Vivid Dreamer. It started as a very vivid dream I had where I was Jack and then it developed from there.
1. Chapter 1

During breaks, a skeleton household usually occupied Xavier's School for the Gifted -- Professor Xavier himself and few other strays who didn't have a place to go when school was out. The house was rarely dark, though -- and it NEVER was completely silent.

Rogue and Gambit left the X-Men's home base for a fun vacation at the beach a few days ago. They split the price for the tickets and had gone down to South America where it was warm in the winter. Now they were home again and no one was answering the door. There were no lights on in the mansion, and no one was stirring.

"Somethin's wrong, Remy," Rogue worried, her Mississippi drawl thickening with her concern.

Her boyfriend threw her a sardonic look. "Mais…mebbe de ot'rs jus' went t' get somet'in' fer lunch," he suggested, putting down the bags in his hands.

Rogue just looked at him.

Remy LeBeau dropped the unconcerned façade a little and went through his pockets looking for the house key. He frowned when he didn't come up with it after a few minutes. Rogue sighed, put down the bags she was carrying, and handed him her key.

He flashed her a sheepish smile. "Remy nevah uses 'is, so Ah fergot it, me."

Rogue crossed her arms over her chest. "Just get the door open, Cajun."

Remy curtailed any sarcastic remarks that came to mind – she really sounded worried – and put the key in the lock. The minute metal touched metal, a loud sizzling noise filled the air between Remy and the door. The hair on the back of Remy's neck stood on end as a small shock passed from the key to his hand. The key fell loose from tingling fingers.

With a startled curse, he pulled his hand back and grabbed Rogue's arm with it. "Booby trap!" he yelped.

Rogue reacted immediately, twisting so she was gripping his free arm and was between him and the door. Once her invulnerable body shielded the other mutant, she took to air at top speed, heading away from the door.

They were only feet away from the door with it exploded, knocking them from the air and propelling them a few more feet. They hit the ground hard, Rogue on top of Remy in the vague hope of protecting him somewhat from the flying debris. Slightly disoriented by their crash, he didn't try to get up until after the wood, metal, and stone fragments stopped falling.

He stirred. "Ah t'ink it's okay t' let me up now, _petite_."

Rogue untangled herself from him, rolling on the ground beside him to lie on her back. She felt like she needed to catch her breath from the suddenness of that explosion before she got to her feet. Remy seemed to feel the same, for although he sat up, he didn't try to stand.

"Nice call about the booby trap." Rogue's voice sounded muffled in the cloud of ash.

Remy waved an arm in front of their faces to clear the fog. "Likewise. Don' let nobody mock yer instincts, _chere_, dey're fahn."

Rogue grimaced and finally pulled herself into a standing position. Just because she was invulnerable didn't mean that she had enjoyed being knocked down from the air like that. Besides, the worry that had been nagging at her before the explosion was now eating at her with a new vigor. "Somehow that ain't really comfortin' right now, sugah. Ah suppose we can rule out the idea of everyone goin' out t' eat."

"Dat's a fair assessment," Remy agreed, standing as well. With the swiftness of the master thief that he was, he pulled some playing cards from his duster. Although he didn't charge them yet, he kept them hidden and easily accessible in his hand and slightly up his sleeve.

That was always a bad sign that Remy expected someone unfriendly to be in the general vicinity.

At times like this Rogue wished she wasn't able to read Gambit so well. She sighed, tossed her skunk-striped auburn hair out of her green eyes, and decided that being an X-Men stunk. She couldn't even have a normal vacation with her boyfriend without coming home to a battle situation.

"Ah'll take point," she told Remy, heading toward what had once been the front of the X-Men's mansion.

This was going to be the beginning of a very bad day. She could just feel it in her bones.

Luthro could feel his body trembling with the charged power his body received from biting the mutants. They would make great vampires.

_It might be a good idea, though, to keep the helpless until I have completely brainwashed them,_ he realized, _I can't have them taking over my project before I have complete control._

They were wonderful weapons for the New Vampires, but they could be just as powerful if used against them. He bit the clawed one again to insure his unconsciousness. That one would be most difficult and most likely to snap the others out of their possession. Yes, best to wait awhile before using them. If he used them at all. He was toying with the idea of just destroying them so they couldn't ruin his plans.

_Yes, that's the way to go._

Before he could act upon this idea, he was knocked half way against the room as another body slammed into his. His vision darkened, but quickly returned to normal.

He looked up, angered. Perhaps the clawed one had woken up after all.

Instead he saw a slender young woman with white-striped auburn hair and angry green eyes. The fact that she was floating in the air with her hands on her hips not only emphasized her displeasure, but also told him that some of the other mutants had just returned home.

"I wish," he growled, "that you people would just work with me instead of fighting me at every turn."

She obviously didn't know what in the world he was talking about, but just as obviously didn't care. "Is that how ya react when people tell ya _no_, sugah?" she snapped, waving an arm to take in her unconscious friends, "Who the heck are ya, anyway?"

Luthro mentally went through the list of the X-Men's members that he had taken pains to memorize before coming here. He toyed calling for backup, but decided to just play this by ear. "Ahh," he said, hitting upon who she was, "You must be Rogue."

Her green eyes narrowed. "That don't tell me who you are, sugah."

He levitated himself so that they were at eye level, unobtrusively bringing himself closer to her. "I am Luthro."

"No closer, sugah," Rogue warned.

He stopped, but she still watched him closely. "Luthro, huh?" she said, "That don't tell me much, sugah. Ah suggest ya start talkin'. Ah'm in a bad mood, and Ah kinda lahk hittin' thangs when Ah'm mad."

He wondered if she had someone watching her back. In the long run, it didn't really matter – whoever was with her couldn't possibly pose much of a problem for him – but it annoyed him that he couldn't place who else was missing here from the X-Men staff list.

He shrugged, buying some time. "I'm a vampire. I want to make more vampires. Is that simple enough for you?"

"Takin' care o' th' top enemies first, huh?" she needled.

"Actually," he said sweetly, "The Avengers and the Fantastic Four were top priority. The X-Men were only third in line. Or fifth, if you count the fact that I took care of Spiderman and Daredevil before your group."

"Nice to know we're in the top ten of threats to bad guys at the very least," she drawled.

"I'm surprised you should look at it that way," he remarked, "The top ten are all going down. I already have the top four. Number five is not going to be that much of a problem."

Before she could respond, he sped up from floating still to super fast, slamming into her. To her credit, she reacted fast – just not fast enough. The two grappled for the upper hand, but although she was super-strong, he was even stronger. He put his mouth against her neck and bit.

Nothing happened. He couldn't break through her skin with his teeth, and too late he remembered her absorbing abilities. Strangely enough, her leech-like powers weren't working on him, and she stared at him, startled, forgetting to struggle for a moment. He recovered from his surprise first, deciding to strangle her with his superior strength before she got his hands off her throat.

He applied pressure in the right spot and she flailed, hitting hard in an effort to get free. He anticipated every shot and blocked it from hitting somewhere vulnerable. Her punches were becoming weaker as she lost her breath, and he knew that it would only be a matter of minutes before she was dead.

Luthro smiled at her. "Goodbye, my dear; nice fighting you."

She glared wordlessly. Just then, fire seemed to smack him in the back, and an explosion hit him in the chest. He gasped in pain from the back and front attack, and though it didn't harm him physically, it startled him enough to make him release his grip on Rogue. She twisted free and fell to the ground, gasping for air.

Luthro ignored her momentarily, wheeling around in search for his unseen attacker.

The young man's strange red eyes stared him down through strands of his auburn hair. A glowing red card was in one hand, and before the stunned vampire could think to react, the unlikely weapon was hurled at his chest again, exploding as it made contact.

_Gambit!_ Luthro cursed himself mentally, as he reeled from the attack, _That was who else was missing!_

Luckily, unlike Rogue, Gambit was merely human in everything except his ability to make any inanimate object a bomb. The Cajun thief might be able to hold him off for a little while, but once he was out of ammo, he would be completely vulnerable to Luthro's attack.

Gambit tossed another bomb, simultaneously drawing another card into his hand. "Rogue?" he called in concern.

"Ah'm fahn," Rogue wheezed, "Don' let 'im, near ya, Remy; he's a vampire."

_I'll take care of you later,_ Luthro thought gloomily towards Rogue, _At this point, your partner is more of a threat._

It would be truly embarrassing if after taking out three large groups of earth's mightiest heroes and nearly the invulnerable Rogue herself, Luthro should be taken down by the much more vulnerable Cajun thief.

The vampire swerved so that Gambit's next missile missed, and then rocketed toward him, zigzagging so that none of Remy's weapons made contact.

He was almost upon the Cajun when Rogue flew into him again, knocking him off course. Gasping for breath, he only managed to stop his momentum from the punch after smacking through several walls. Through the Luthro-shaped holes before him, he could see and hear Rogue coming, and although he could not do the same for Remy, the vampire had no doubt that the thief was on his way as well.

_Time for a strategic retreat,_ he decided, mentally triggering the transport device that would take those he had bitten to his hidden base. In the other room, though no one was there to see it, the unconscious X-Men disappeared.

_I'll take care of Rogue and Gambit some other time. They shall pay for my indignity and injuries._

With a pained grimace, he touched the side where Rogue had punched him. He would actually have a bruise there tomorrow; he was certain of it. With false cheer he called out: "Nicely done, my dear Rogue. Unfortunately, I must leave now with the rest of your team. I'm sure it will please you that you and your friend have moved up to threat number one. Cheerio."

He called for his own transport, and right in front of Rogue's started face, he disappeared.

Rogue gaped at where the vampire had been a moment before. "Since when have vampires been able t' do _that_?"

Remy stepped out of the shadows behind her, his bo-staff loosely at ready in his hand. She hadn't known he was there, but to her credit, she didn't jump. "Ah t'ink we've got trouble, me," he said, solemnly.

Rogue looked at him. "An' guess what, sugah, it's jus' you an' me against him. In case ya didn't hear, he took the rest o' the team wit' him and already took down th' other superheroes around town."

Remy grimaced and leaned against his bo-staff. "Oh, yeah. We definitely got trouble."


	2. Chapter 2

The trip to PX-_whatever_ had been fairly uneventful. Colonel Jack O'Neill usually didn't bother to memorize the official designations of peaceful planets, and so the name of this one was quickly forgotten.

Instead, in his mind, this planet would always be remembered as the one where Daniel got poison ivy.

Across the table from him in the briefing room, Daniel Jackson uncomfortably shifted in his seat. The team's astrophysicist, Major Samantha Carter, babbled on about the samples they had gathered and the plant life, and Jack smothered an uncharitable grin. Usually Daniel would be enthusiastically boring them along with Sam, but right now he was too uncomfortable to even sit still.

The man in question threw Carter a frantic look with his baby blues, but she didn't notice since she was looking at General Hammond.

Teal'c, the fourth member of the team, glanced at the fidgeting Daniel with a raised eyebrow (his typical expression for everything from confusion over slang to disgust). Daniel looked sheepish, but still like he wanted to die right there and now. He was paying dearly for begging last mission that the briefing would come before the physical.

Jack finally took pity on SG-1's personal genius and archeologist. "Uh, Carter, in case you've forgotten, Daniel's got poison ivy. I think he'd like to have his physical now."

Sam looked like a kid who suddenly remembered she wasn't supposed to yell in the library, and Daniel threw Jack a grateful look. Jack shrugged – _no problem._

General Hammond gave Daniel a disapproving, yet indulgent look. "You should have mentioned this before the debriefing, Doctor Jackson. You're dismissed for now, SG-1, to have Doctor Fraiser take a look at you. I want to finish this meeting at 1930."

"Yessir," Jack and Sam said in unison. Sam's embarrassed blush was even now starting to fade a bit as she put her mission report back in her blue folder.

"Oh, thank you, General," Daniel gasped in relief. He rushed from his chair like his head was on fire and ran out the door, obviously heading for the infirmary at top speed.

Teal'c raised an eyebrow, and Jack and Sam tried to gulp down guilty twin grins.

"That rash is going to be really pretty," Jack remarked. Before Hammond could rebuke him, Jack briskly headed for the door, impish grin fighting for control of his face.

"1930. We'll be there." He stepped out, only to stick his head back in a second later. "Carter, Teal'c, physicals. C'mon, we've got seven hours before we've gotta be back here. I want to eat something first."

"Coming, sir," Sam smiled, following him out.

Teal'c was right at her heels. "I have never seen you so eager for a physical, O'Neill."

"It's the break after that interests me; c'mon, kids, let's get to the infirmary double time, get finished there, spring Daniel, and eat."

Daniel felt a lot better after Janet Fraiser put some cream on his poison ivy infection, and made a vow to himself to avoid the plant like the plague from now on.

"Let me put this cream in my room before we go to eat, okay?" he told his friends, "Janet said I have to apply it to the infection twice a day, and I don't want to carry it to the commissary with me."

Jack stared at him as if surprised. "Why not?"

Daniel rolled his eyes as he opened his door. "Jack, don't be a pain."

"How can one be a pain?" Teal'c inquired as the team stepped into Daniel's office. Sam opted to wait outside and study the papers posted on the bulletin board beside Daniel's door.

Daniel shrugged as he looked in the crowded room for a free place to put the cream jar. "Keep an eye on Jack, Teal'c. He's a perfect study case for a human pain."

"Ha, ha, very funny," Jack said, pushing aside some of Daniel's things to sit on his desk, "Don't quit your day job."

Daniel finally found a place to stash his medical cream and set about rescuing his archeological finds from the certain destruction they would meet at the hands of Jack O'Neill. "Careful with those artifacts, Jack; they're hundreds of years old."

He took a canopic jar from Jack's hands and put it next to his cream on a bookshelf.

"Danieljackson, you have left your television on," Teal'c told him, interrupting the friendly argument.

Sam joined the guys, bored of waiting outside for Daniel to finish putting away his medicine. "Anything good on?"

Daniel blinked owlishly. "Oops. I must have forgotten to turn it off when we left on our last mission."

"Way to go, Einstein," cracked Jack, "I'd love to see your cable bill."

"I don't have cable, Jack; I have a satellite. There's a difference."

Jack waved a hand airily. "Technicalities. The concept's the same."

Sam smiled from where she was flipping through one of Daniel's books, enjoying the two men's customary bickering.

"O'Neill. Majorcarter. Danieljackson." Teal'c's voice sounded tight. The humans looked up from what they were doing. Sam put the book back down on Daniel's desk.

"What is it, Teal'c?" she asked, moving to stand next to him so she could see the TV as well.

"It is the news. Something unnatural is happening on your planet."

Teal'c then stopped talking as the newscaster began to speak while the camera continued showing signs of destruction.

"The devastation has covered all of New York it seems, first hitting the world's mightiest heroes. The Avengers' Mansion was found wrecked, the Fantastic Four's plane has disappeared ominously, and Spiderman and Daredevil have gone missing. More recently, the attacks have been hitting military and civilian targets, including an Army base, a mall, and a movie theater. The few survivors that come out of these attacks are incoherent; frightened by something so terrible they've blocked it out. Those who have not survived cannot be found; their bodies spirited away by the perpetrators. What purpose there could be behind these random attacks is yet to be discovered, but police have revealed that they have received an anonymous tip that the mutant criminals Rogue and Gambit are involved in the attacks. Given the violent nature of most mutants, this tip is most probably reliable." A set of two pictures came over the scene, showing a young woman with white striped auburn hair and green eyes, and a young man with red eyes and hair the same color as hers, though without the stripe. "If you see either of these two mutants, do not confront them. Get yourself somewhere safe, and then call the police. They are heartless and dangerous." The announcer's face replaced the pictures on the screen. The blonde's pouty lips showed more than a little worry. "This is Jessi Tillman of CBS news on site in New York. Back to you, Chris."

Teal'c turned off the TV. "Is this not a cause for concern?"

Jack frowned. "You think a Gao'uld got through to Earth." It wasn't a question.

"Indeed."

"Bu-but, how could that happen?" Daniel asked, stammering as he always did when he was nonplussed, "We're always very careful about whom we open the iris to."

"Maybe they didn't come through the Stargate," Sam offered. "Maybe they came by ship."

"That is most probable," Teal'c agreed, clasping his hands behind his back, "The Gao'uld know of your iris very well. It would be logical for them to then try take the Tau'ri by ship instead, since your planet defenses in this area would not match theirs."

Jack rubbed his the sides of his head beside his eyes. "What about the Asgard treaty?"

Teal'c turned to look at Jack. "As you know well, O'Neill, the word of a Gao'uld is not to be trusted. Especially not if this is a rogue Gao'uld like Nerti, Apophis, or Hathor. The suspects mentioned could be their allies or Gao'uld themselves."

Sam twisted to face Jack and Daniel. "Colonel," she addressed Jack, "I think we should bring this to General Hammond's attention."

Jack sighed. "Right." _So much for asking for a vacation after debriefing._ "Daniel," he said aloud, "TIVO that and tape it. I want the General to see the whole report."

Daniel headed for the TV, and Jack went to the door. Daniel paused. "Where are you going, Jack?"

O'Neill grimaced as he stood in the doorway. "I'm going to ask General Hammond for an emergency meeting. Lunch is canceled, kids."

Jack continued on his way and Daniel began rewinding the report. Sam took one more look at the suspects' faces on the screen and headed to Daniel's computer to get as much information on them as possible. Teal'c went to the armory to prepare for an Earth-based mission.

Like the top-of-the-line team they were, SG-1 prepared to save Earth once again from destruction.


	3. Chapter 3

Jack got his meeting without much trouble, and within a few hours SG-1 was armed with their evidence and information, all of them ready to go when Hammond gave the word.

Hammond nodded at Jack to start his explanation. Jack stood up to begin, but no sooner had he opened his mouth, did the alarms of the SGC go off.

"Off-world activation," Sergeant Davis' voice announced over the loud speaker. Hammond looked at SG-1 in surprise, and all of them poured out of the meeting room to the observation room.

"Who is it, Sergeant?" Hammond demanded.

Davis stared at the displays, waiting. "I don't know yet, sir." Finally, a familiar blip can across his computer screen. "It's the Tok'ra, sir."

"Open the iris," Hammond ordered. The soldiers in the 'Gateroom held their guns at ready.

Immediately the metal shield covering the Stargate's mouth opened, an a few minutes later one man stepped out of the wormhole. "It's Jacob," Hammond noted. Carter turned around and headed for the stairs that would lead her to the 'Gateroom, SG-1 at her heels. "Stand down," the General told the soldiers through the observation room's microphone.

General Jacob Carter, who shared his body with the Tok'ra Selmak, waved a hand up at Hammond. "Nice to see you again, George."

"Likewise, Jacob, although we weren't expecting you," Hammond replied, still speaking in the microphone.

Sam burst into the 'Gateroom, giving Jacob a big hug. "Dad! What are you doing here?"

Jacob waited until the hug was finished to tell her. Behind them, the wormhole shut down. "Important business, Sam. Earth is in danger."

Suddenly, the Stargate started dialing up again.

"In-coming wormhole," Davis called out from his post in the observation room. The iris closed over the Stargate once more and the Carters backed up toward the rest of SG-1 at the back of the 'Gateroom.

"Is it friendly?" Sam called.

Again, Davis studied his read-outs. "It's Bra'tac," he called out.

"Open the iris," Hammond repeated, feeling rather like a parrot.

"Whoa, two allies arriving in a matter of five minutes," Jack remarked, "That can't be good."

The iris opened once more, and Teal'c's mentor and friend stepped into the SGC, the wormhole closing immediately behind him.

"Welcome once again to the SGC, Bra'tac," Hammond's voice came through the 'Gateroom's speakers.

"I have not come merely to exchange greetings," Bra'tac called, "I have come to inform you of danger to your world."

"Join the club," said Jacob, dryly.

Hammond spoke again over the speakers. "SG-1, Jacob, Bra'tac, I would appreciate seeing all of you in the briefing room so we can discuss these matters."

"He means now," Jack clarified, waving his hand toward the door, "Guests first?"

Bra'tac and Teal'c had finished their warm greeting to each other and were already heading out the door. Sam and Jacob walked arm-in-arm, catching up as they walked. Daniel trailed after, cleaning his glasses thoughtfully. Jack nodded at the soldiers and took up the caboose.

It was going to be a long meeting.

Jack was right, for two hours later SG-1 had only just finished explaining what they had seen on TV, and the meeting was still going.

"A certain Gao'uld named Baba has escaped the system lords' prison for him and is thought to have headed for earth," Jacob announced.

"Baba?" Jack protested, "Like in _Ba, ba, black sheep?_"

Jacob ignored him, and Bra'tac spoke up. "This is the same news for which I have come to the Tau'ri. Baba is much feared among the system lords, which is why he has been locked up for so long."

"And which is why we've probably never heard of him," Sam deduced.

"Indeed," said Teal'c, "I, in fact, believed him to be dead."

"Daniel, what can you tell us about this _Baba_ character?" Jack inquired, lip still twisting at the name.

Daniel was immediately in professor-mode. "Well, according to Egyptian mythology, Baba was the god of aggression and virility. He was normally depicted as a baboon whose penis was the bolt of Heaven's doors or the mast of the Underworld boat."

"Whose penis… _what_?" Jack gaped. Sam smothered a giggle. Even Jacob and Hammond looked slightly amused.

Daniel seemed totally oblivious to their reactions. "Was the bolt of Heaven's doors or the mast of the Underworld boat," he repeated. He paused. "He must be pretty terrible for the system lords to be so scared of him."

"God of aggression, remember?" Jack remarked dryly, having regained his composure.

Daniel made a face. "Yeah, that's true."

"And you and Bra'tac think this Baba is here on Earth." Hammond looked at Jacob for clarification.

"Yes," Jacob and Bra'tac said together.

Jacob looked down at the table, and when he looked up again, his eyes flashed, signifying the Selmak had now joined the conversation. "The Tok'ra believe that it would be most unfortunate if Baba should take over the Tau'ri," the much deeper-voice of the Tok'ra announced, "Therefore Jacob and I shall do all we can to make sure that Baba is neutralized."

"But they couldn't spare anyone but you two, huh?" Jack snapped a little rudely. He had never been overly fond of the Tok'ra. In his mind they were good Gao'uld who weren't much better than their enemies. Jacob/Selmak and Martouf/Lantash were really the only two Tok'ra he trusted.

Bra'tac broke in here. "I am afraid that neither could the rebel Jaffa. We have not heard from our spies in Baba's service for many days. We fear the worst."

"Sir, I think we should contact the mutant suspects," Sam told Hammond, leaning on the table, "they might know something even if they aren't truly involved."

Hammond nodded. "SG-1, you have a go." He looked at Selmak/Jacob and Bra'tac. "If you two want to come along, you have my blessing."

SG-1 and their allies rose to their feet.

"C'mon, Bra'tac, let's get you a hat," said Jack, steering Bra'tac toward the door without actually touching him. The Jaffa warrior could be a little prickly at times, and Jack didn't care to get punched in the nose again by Bra'tac.

"A hat?" Bra'tac asked, rolling the word on his tongue.

Jack winked at him. "A little camouflage. C'mon. Teal'c's gotta wear one too."

"Most Tau'ri do not know of Apophis," Teal'c explained from behind them, "So we must hide the sign of our former servitude to him."

"I wish that all Jaffa could," Bra'tac said forcefully, "but that day will not come until we are free from the Gao'uld."

He turned to Jack. "Take me to wear you keep this 'hat'."

SG-1 and their allies were ready to go within the hour. They carried zats hidden under their winter coats as well as traditional handguns and ammo in their backpacks. Teal'c and Bra'tac hid the golden tattoos on their foreheads with black winter hats, and though both looked very uncomfortable in the winter clothes, Teal'c looked a little more at ease than his mentor.

"These clothes are heavy and much unsuited for quick movement," Bra'tac complained, tugging at his itchy hat. He also still looked unhappy about having to leave his staff weapon at Cheyenne Mountain.

"They'll keep us from freezing to death," Jack told him wryly.

"Indeed," Teal'c put in, "The Tau'ri winters get quite cold."

"Especially in Colorado," Sam said, "Boston and New York will be pretty cold too, and from what I understand, those are two bases where our suspects will likely be."

She tightened a deep blue scarf around her neck, put on her matching gloves, and pulled up her sky-blue hood.

Jack's lip twisted. "You look like an Eskimo, Carter."

"You look like you're going to freeze, Jack," Daniel talked back from where he was still putting on his red winter gear.

"Daniel's right, sir," Carter agreed, "I don't think that leather jacket's going to be warm enough."

"It's lined," Jack explained, "And warmer than you might think." He pulled on a black hat that matched Teal'c and Bra'tac's. "Ready to go, kids?"

"As soon as you are, Jack," Jacob said, rechecking his pistol and zat for one last time.

"Carter, where do you think our kids are going to be?" Jack asked, looking over at his subordinate.

Sam shrugged. "Well, the attacks were in New York, and the files say that's their probable base of operations."

"But you think…" Jack probed.

"Sir, I think that they won't be in New York. It's too obvious after the attacks."

"If they're the ones behind the attacks, you mean," Daniel pointed out, "we don't really know that for sure."

Sam turned her blue eyes on Daniel. "They're really the only lead we have, Daniel. If they don't know what's going on, I don't know what we'll do."

"So… Boston?" Jack asked brightly.

Sam smiled. "Yes, sir; I think we should go to Boston."


	4. Chapter 4

Rogue and Remy had decided that they were too easy to find if they stayed at the X-Men Mansion. They debated long into the night about where they should go, and in the end chose to go the X-Men's school in Boston. It was a good place to hide and the perfect opportunity to warn Banshee about the possible threat the school faced. They left New York that morning, and arrived later that day in Boston. Much to their discomfort, they found the school listless when they arrived on the doorstep.

"_De ja vu_?" Remy remarked, shifting his wait from foot to foot.

Rogue grimaced. "Bite yer tongue."

The two of them waited a good three minutes. Finally Remy broke the silence with a shiver. "Ah don' know 'bout you, _chere_, but Remy ain't all dat fond o' de cold. How 'bout we stare at each ot'r morosely from inside de school, _si vous svp?_"

Rogue thought about it; then sighed in agreement. "Yeah, Ah guess there ain't no sense in us freezin' our butts off."

She reached out to open the door.

Remy's instincts went wild and he grabbed her hand. "Let's fly in," he suggested, "t'ru de upstairs window."

Rogue blinked for a moment, but then she got. "Darn," she breathed, "Yeah, Remy, you're right. Ah certainly don' want a repeat of what happened at the mansion."

She grabbed him and flew them both to an upstairs window. _Jubilee's room,_ she decided.

"Did ya ever doubt it?" Remy asked impishly, oblivious to her thoughts.

Rogue looked down at him, a playful smile tugging at her lips. "Ah should drop ya," she threatened.

Remy grinned. "Okay, Ah'll shut up."

"Here we go," Rogue warned him as they came up level with their entrance. Remy covered his face and braced for contact as she flew towards the window. They crashed through, Rogue taking the brunt of the sharp contact. As they scrambled off the glass-covered floor, Rogue saw that in spite of her attempt to protect him, Remy had still gotten cut up a little. It didn't look like anything serious, he didn't look like he was about to fall over, but…

Remy caught her worried look and waved nonchalant hand at her. "Ah'm fahn. Jus' a little scratched, dat's all."

He looked around the room; it was Jubilee's alright, but it looked even messier than it was wont to, in spite of overlooking the broken glass on her carpet. "Don' look like she's home, _chere._" He sounded concerned.

"Yeah, looks lahk a real pig-sty, too," Rogue agreed, her voice tight. "This don't look good, Remy."

Remy looked just as grim as she felt. "Yeah," he said, avoiding the glass on the floor as much as he could while heading out the door. He had some cards out, Rogue noticed, her stomach hardening as her mind replayed the scene back in New York. She hurried to catch up with him in the hallway.

"Hang on, Remy," she hissed, grabbing his arm, "Ah think Ah should go first. That Luthro guy can hurt ya a lot easier than he can me."

The minute she said that, she knew he didn't like it. Not. One. Bit.

"He nearly killed ya last tahm, _petit_," he replied unhappily.

Rogue bristled. "He caught me by surprise. Mah power didn' work on 'im. Now Ah know better."

"'E's a fast _crotte_, too," Remy protested, still not pleased, "he caught ya by surprise once, who says he can't do it again?"

"Better me than you," Rogue insisted, "Ah'm stronger an' his bite don' affect me. If he gets th' drop on you, sugah, you're out fer the fight. You jus' won' be able t' match 'im if he gets close to ya. Sorry, Remy, it's gotta be mah way if we're both gonna get outta this alive."

Remy resigned himself to giving in. He was as pigheaded as it got, but even he saw the stupidity of arguing with Rogue about this right now. "Fahn. Jus' don' go rushin' ahead lahk ya did bag daer. Remy barely got dere soon enough t' stop him from breakin' ya neck."

Rogue grimaced at the memory of her throat constricting, and rubbed it self-consciously. "Deal."

SG-1, accompanied by Bra'tac and Jacob, arrived in Boston in record time. Jack parked the van they had rented for the mission, in the designated parking lot, and the little group headed stealthily towards the building. O'Neill nodded at the others, signaling them to split up as they discussed in the car.

Sam and Daniel walked casually to the front door, ready to pose as a couple checking out a school for their child. Teal'c and Bra'tac circled around to the back of the building. Jack and Jacob sat back in some bushes by the truck, watching the front of the school.

"Daniel, Carter, you've got a go," Jack whispered into his radio, "Jacob and I have your six."

"Roger that, sir." Sam and Daniel moved closer to the door, Daniel's hand reaching for the doorbell.

Jack's radio crackled. "Bra'tac and I are in position, O'Neill."

"Great, Teal'c," Jack replied, allowing his eyes to dart around the area while Jacob kept an eye on the door, "Keep it sharp. And keep radio silence unless you see something."

"Indeed, O'Neill." Teal'c signed off.

At the door, Daniel pressed the doorbell once more.

Jack's radio activated once more. "Jack, I don't think the doorbell's working. I leaned on it several times, and I couldn't hear it echoing."

"Is there a knocker?" Jack asked.

"No."

Jack looked at the older man next to him. "Jacob?"

Jacob turned his binoculars in a different direction. "No cars in the parking lot, Jack," he finally said, "I don't think anyone's home."

Jack bit the side of his mouth. He sighed. "Okay, Carter, do it."

"Breaking in, sir," Sam verified over the radio.

At the door, she fumbled with something in her jacket than knelt down next to the door. All the sudden she jerked. "Holy Hannah!" she snapped into the radio, "sir, we've got a trap."

Jack and Jacob watched in horror as Daniel grabbed Sam's arm and the two of them started running. Then Daniel yanked his teammate off to the side, rolling them down a little hill that headed toward the parking lot. Just as they picked up speed, the whole front of the school exploded, forcing Jack and Jacob to duck behind the van to avoid being hit by debris.

"Daniel?! Sam?!" Jack radioed frantically.

Silence, then: "We're okay, sir; Daniel reacted quickly enough so that the explosion mostly missed us. We're in the parking lot now; we're coming up to join you."

Jacob breathed a lot easier, and he wiped his brow in relief.

Another incoming call caused Jack's radio to crackle. "O'Neill, what was that explosion?"

"It's okay, T, the front of the building exploded. Some kind of booby trap. Zero casualties. We're gonna move in. You and Bra'tac watch you're step."

"We shall indeed tread most carefully," Teal'c said solemnly.

He signed out before Jack could think of something sufficiently sarcastic to say.

"We are to move into the building," Teal'c told Bra'tac as he put his radio on stand-by.

"What was the explosion?" Bra'tac inquired.

"A trap," Teal'c explained, purposely leaving out the booby part. He did not understand of the use of the word in this instance himself, and thought it unnecessary to confuse Bra'tac with the odd sayings of the Tau'ri.

Bra'tac pulled his zat loose, wordlessly taking the lead through the mangled halls. Teal'c followed, eyes taking in every shadow and corner. Seemingly from nowhere, an attack suddenly knocked his mentor aside and out of Teal'c's sight.

"Master Bra'tac!" he yelled, activating his zat with one hand and pulling a Tau'ri pistol out of his coat with another.

His mentor didn't answer, but Teal'c's call did attract another attacker. Two bombs exploded at his feet knocking him to his knees. Dizzy, Teal'c could still hear Bra'tac battling. He wished he could help him, but he had his own problems. His hands scrambled for his radio. They needed some backup…

"Oh, Ah don' t'ink so, _mon ami_." A metal stick came out of the darkness and smacked the radio loose from his hand, sending it flying across the room.

"O'Neill!" Teal'c bellowed, in the vague hope that the Colonel could hear him. He needed to know that there were people in here…

"Hey, none o' dat!" The voice warned, sounding closer now.

Teal'c's hands looked for his weapons, but they had gone the same way as his radio and could do him no good now. He grimaced fiercely in what Jack called his _I'm-as-friendly-as-a-lion_ look. He stumbled as if he were having a hard time standing up, and then lunged swiftly toward where the voice had last been.

He had surprised his attacker, since the big Jaffa tended to look clunky, but even so, Teal'c only just managed to grab a hold of the man's arm. He gripped it with ferocity, and he could hear the other gasp with pain. Teal'c smiled grimly. Jaffa strength startled many adversaries unpleasantly when they first came upon it.

Then, to Teal'c's surprise, his opponent twisted his imprisoned arm so that it would be holding the arm that gripped it. The Jaffa did not have much time to wonder at the other's tactics before his winter coat began to glow red.

_That cannot be a good thing…_ Teal'c realized. He dropped his enemy's arm, prompting the release of his own. He only just barely managed to get the jacket off before it exploded.

Angry, Teal'c whirled around, looking for attacker among the shadows. Mindless of the winter cold, he also stripped the shirt he was wearing, determined to give his foe as little ammo as possible. He did not have to wait long for the attack; soon he was slammed into from behind.

Teal'c did not give the other a chance to melt back into the shadows, and instead reached behind himself swiftly to once more catch hold of his adversary. He sent the man flying over his head, but felt himself fall as his opponent managed to trip him with his metal stick. Both of them hit the ground hard; unfortunately his enemy recovered first and hurled himself on his downed opponent. He came down hard on Teal'c's abdomen, the easiest area for him to reach at the moment.

Either dumb luck or clever design caused one of the man's hands to slip into Teal'c's symbiote sack. Teal'c could feel his Gao'uld symbiote wrap itself around the other's hand, determined to make its way to Teal'c's opponent's neck. The enemy pulled his hand out of the warm sack, surprise visible on his face in the dim light. He looked at the climbing symbiote with wary astonishment.

"What de hey…?" he muttered.

Teal'c gasped in pain, and tried to wrench his symbiote free from his adversary before the other was made a host. He couldn't reach high enough, but thankfully he didn't have to.

Blue electricity hit his enemy from behind, and he fell against Teal'c, stunned. Teal'c took this chance to snatch back his symbiote and stuff it back in his sack. To his satisfaction, he could feel his symbiote's frustrated anger at being deprived of the blending.

"Teal'c?" Jack called from the shadows, concern in his voice.

"I am fine," Teal'c managed, "See to Master Bra'tac." He rolled his enemy off of him – in the light provided by Jacob's flashlight, he could see it was the mutant the TV had called Gambit – and stiffly tried to stand up.

"Jacob, you stay with Teal'c," Jack ordered, "I'm going to help Carter and Daniel take care of whoever is bothering Bra'tac."

"It should be the one called Rogue," Teal'c said, taking his zat from the floor and pointing it at Gambit, "This one is Gambit."

"Alright," said Jack, "I'll let the others know who they're dealing with. You two keep this guy down."

"We shall, O'Neill," Teal'c agreed determinedly.

As Jack disappeared once again in the shadows, Jacob turned his flashlight on Teal'c. He blinked in surprise.

"Teal'c, why do you have your shirt and coat off?"

Teal'c looked down at his bared chest, located his shirt, and pulled it back on. "It is a long tale."

Jacob waved his light toward Gambit, who wasn't stirring yet. "Well, it's not like we're short on time."

Teal'c began to explain.


	5. Chapter 5

Jack hurried in the direction he had sent Sam and Daniel, hoping that the knowledge of whom their opponent was would help them in the long run.

He was surprised to find them sitting in a circle with Bra'tac and Rogue, _talking._

Jack stared. "What the heck is going on?"

Daniel looked up, startled by the interruption. "Huh? Oh, hi, Jack, this Rogue. Rogue, this is Colonel Jack O'Neill."

"Hey, sugah," the girl smiled.

_Sugah?_ Jack sighed. "What are you three doing?" he demanded.

"Four," Daniel corrected, holding up the correct number of fingers.

Sometimes, whether he intended to or not, Daniel could make Jack feel like an idiot. "I _can_ count, Daniel," O'Neill snapped, "I was talking to you, Carter, and Bra'tac."

"Oh… we were talking." Daniel, totally oblivious to the fact that Jack wanted slightly more than that, turned to continue his conversation with Rogue.

"We managed to startle her and Bra'tac into separating," Sam quickly put in, "and then Daniel started explaining what we were doing here. I think you might be interested in hearing what she had to tell us."

"Where's Remy?" Rogue asked, interrupting both Daniel and Sam at this point.

Jack raised his eyebrows. "Remy?"

Rogue sighed. "Aw, darn. Remy LeBeau," she explained, "tall, got red eyes. _Gambit_, ya know?"

"Ahhh," Jack nodded back the way he'd come, "he's in the other room. He made the bad mistake of attacking a friend of mine. Had to stun him."

Rogue stood up and headed in that direction. "Then he's gonna wake up kinda mad. Y'all are gonna want me to be there when he does."

The human members of SG-1 and Bra'tac followed her out. Jack subtly dropped back a bit so he could see how Bra'tac was. The old Jaffa looked a little shaken, and was sporting some nice bruising, but otherwise looked all right. Jaffa warriors were tough; Bra'tac would rough it out.

"I do not need a nursemaid," Bra'tac declared indignantly.

Jack blinked at the older man; he hadn't realized that his once-over had been that obvious. "No… you don't," he agreed carefully, "but Teal'c wanted to make sure you were all right."

Bra'tac harrumphed. "I was caring for myself long before he could do battle."

"I'll tell him that," Jack said dryly. Up ahead they could see Jacob and Teal'c waiting. Jacob waved at them frantically to hurry up. Jack and Bra'tac picked up their speed to a jog, as did the others in front of them.

Jack softly cursed. "He must be waking up."

Rogue left Daniel and Sam behind, taking to air, and therefore reaching the Jacob and Teal'c first. The Jaffa and the Tok'ra lifted their zats in warning.

"No, it's okay!" Daniel yelled, "Trust her!"

The two men lowered their weapons a little, still watching Rogue cautiously. She ignored them and landed beside Gambit. He must have heard her set down, because he came up ready to fight. She pushed him flat easily.

"Hey, sugah!" she smiled brightly.

Remy's eyes darted around the room, taking in SG-1 and their allies. "Rogue… what's goin' on?"

"Ya promise not t' start a ruckus?" Rogue wheedled.

"Wit' a bunch o' guns pointed at mah head," Remy said dryly, "Ah'm 'bout ready t' promise anyt'ing."

Rogue looked satisfied, and let him sit up. Daniel came to join them. "You see," Rogue explained, "there was a little ol' _misunderstandin'_."

"Misunderstandin'?" Remy raised an eyebrow, "_Chere,_ bombs don' go attachin' demselves t' doors cause dey 'ave a little misunderstandin'."

"Actually," Daniel put in, sitting next to Rogue on the floor, "we didn't put that bomb in the door. Sam and I just accidentally set it off."

"Y'all came wit' an awful lot o' weapons still. Includin'," Remy sounded rather annoyed, "dat t'ing dat shoots 'lectricity."

Daniel opened his mouth to insert the name, and Jack tread on his foot. Daniel gulped down the word and a yelp.

"We thought you were responsible for the attacks that have been taking place in New York," Sam explained, covering the fact that Daniel was suddenly silent.

"Not that we have any evidence that you _aren't_." Jack's voice was disbelieving.

"What attacks?" Remy looked confused. He glanced over at Rogue.

His partner took over the explanation at this point. "Danny here told me that people all over were disappearin' an' buildin's were explodin'," she told him, "When he mentioned that the Avengers, Fantastic Four, Spiderman, and Daredevil went missin', Ah knew it had t' be our boy Luthro. Especially wit' th' little matter o' the 'anonymous tip' that th' cops received fingerin' _us_ as th' culprits."

Jack rubbed his head and sighed, nonetheless keeping a pistol pointed in the mutants' general direction. "Who's Luthro?"

"Luthro attacked our base in New York yesterday," Rogue replied, pushing her long wavy hair out of her eyes, "He beat our teammates in a fight, and was about t' take them away with 'im when Remy an' Ah came back from our vacation. We embarrassed 'im, for although he got out wit' our friends in the end, the two of us managed t' pretty much whup his sorry butt. He wasn't happy, and promised to make us sorry." She shrugged. "As an X-Man ya pretty much hear threats like that all the time, so we weren't freakin'-out worried an' just decided to warn the school that there might be trouble. When we got here, everyone, includin' the students were gone. An' now this thang on th' news 'bout a tip… Ah guess vampires nurse take a good whuppin' worse than most folks."

"Vampires." Jack was skeptical. "_Sure_… we'll buy that."

"Most people wouldn't t'ink it possible for a guy t' have a snake in 'is stomach eit'er," Remy retorted, locking eyes with Jack, "Ya _bougre_ dere has one."

There was a shocked silence.

"How did you know that?" Jack finally managed.

Remy glanced over at Teal'c; the Jaffa raised an eyebrow at him. Remy turned back toward Jack. To be frank, he was still a little hazy on what exactly had happened. It had occurred so quickly and had been so unusual, that he had only the chance to register that the guy had had a snake in his stomach before he had been electrocuted.

Teal'c saved him the necessity of answering. "His hand slipped into my symbiote pouch while we were fighting, O'Neill," the Jaffa said, "My symbiote wrapped around his arm as he pulled it out. If you had not come when you had, I would have died, and we would have had more problems than the attacks."

"Why?" Rogue asked.

The mutants exchanged looks when she received no answer. Rogue waved her hand in front of Daniel's face. Daniel jerked back.

"Hellooo," Rogue drew the word out. "C'mon, guys, wake up. Why would y'all have more problems if snake-boy –"

"Teal'c," Daniel filled in.

Rogue didn't miss a beat. "—Teal'c died?"

"Or did it have somet'in t' do wit' de snake?" Remy put in thoughtfully, "Dat ain't really a snake, is it, _mes amis_? It's somet'in else. 'Cuz Remy ain't nevah heard o' no snake in dis world dat can live in a person's body wit' dat person still livin'."

"Tell us everything you can about Luthro," Jack said instead.

Rogue began to speak, but Remy put a restraining hand on her arm. "We don't give nothin' till we get somet'in," Remy replied firmly. Rogue nodded slowly and closed her mouth. She would play it his way.

"Tell us about Luthro," Jack insisted in a steel voice. Daniel and Sam exchanged uncomfortable looks, but kept silent.

Remy studied Jack intently. "Dis ain't 'bout Lut'ro, _est-il_? Y'all didn' know he existed before Rogue mentioned 'im to ya. An' most government types come after mutants wit' Sentinels. Y'all ain't who ya say ya are an' ya ain't here jus' t' stomp down some mutant troublemakers. Who are y'all really, _hahn_?"

Silence. Sam looked at Jack. "Uh, sir, this could be a problem."

Remy and Rogue looked at them with raised eyebrows, giving nothing away. They had the information SG-1 wanted at their fingertips, and they knew it.

Jack sighed and started patting himself down for his phone. "Yeah, let me call Hammond."


	6. Chapter 6

In the end, Hammond agreed that the two X-Men be let into the loop, but only on a "need-to-know" basis. He had also looked at the files that Sam had pulled up on Remy and Rogue, and realized that normal methods of questioning would probably not work on them. Earth needed the information the mutants had. The SGC just had to hope that they were patriotic enough to give it over once they knew what they were dealing with.

Surprisingly, the couple wasn't overly shocked when presented with the idea of alien contact as they drove to Cheyenne Mountain.

"So y'all think this is some kind o' alien invasion," Rogue deduced.

"Yeah, basically," said Sam, twisting in her seat so she could look over Daniel at Rogue, "You see, the Gao'uld need hosts to survive, and Earth has long been a sore spot for them. We're one of the few planets they've taken that has overthrown their yoke successfully enough to start helping others they've conquered. We instill thoughts of rebellion in the hearts of their slaves, and they can't stand us for that."

"So Baba decided to get himself some nice, stubborn slaves and take all of Earth," Jack put in from the front seat. He didn't bother to look back at Rogue, for which everyone was grateful. It already made Jacob jumpy enough that Jack talked on a headset while driving. Jacob was doing his best to ignore the headset Jack was wearing by watching the activity in the back of the van instead of the man next to him.

"So dis… Baba… he's got a snake in his stomach?" Remy probed, trying to keep everything straight.

Daniel grinned sympathetically. "It's called a Gao'uld. And, no, it's in his head, not his stomach. Only Jaffa carry symbiotes in their stomachs. To keep them alive until their ready to take a host."

"The Jaffa are the snakes' slaves, right?" Rogue's green eyes flitted from Daniel to Sam, and her gloved hand unconsciously rubbed her forehead.

"Yes, the Jaffa are warriors enslaved by the Gao'uld," Daniel said patiently, "though they are now fighting their imposed 'gods'."

"Just go ahead and call the Gao'uld snakes," Jack told Remy and Rogue, "That's what I do. It's just easier to remember."

"Look, I know this is a lot to process at one time," Sam inserted, "but you said you wanted to know what we were doing before you gave us any information. Now you know."

"And we _really_ need that information," Jack added, glancing in the review mirror at them, "Then when you kids sign the nondisclosure papers we have waiting for you at the Mountain we can get you somewhere safe to sit out the rest of this particular adventure."

"Nah-uh," Rogue shook her head, "we'll give y'all your information, an' we'll sign your little ol' papers, but we _won't_ jus' sit out this adventure. We lost friends an' teammates t' this fella Luthro. We've gotta go after them."

"This is not a matter for civilians," Teal'c said solemnly, "The Gao'uld are quite formidable. Like nothing else this planet has ever seen."

"Most o' the people we'll be fightin' are Jaffa an' vampires," Remy pointed out, "Rogue an' me have handled both, if ya count our tussle wit' you an' de ol' man. We ain't strangers t' takin' care o' ourselves."

"Fact is," Rogue shrugged, "we ain't askin' your permission. We're gonna do somethin' 'bout this whether ya like it or not."

Up front Jack sighed, and pressed a button on his speed dial. "Sir," he muttered into the headset, "We've got another problem."

In the end, the papers were signed, and the SGC agreed to let the X-Men help with the situation – if only to keep an eye on them. Rogue gave Sam a description of Luthro, while Remy endured a lecture on chain of command from an anxious O'Neill. Jack wasn't happy with the situation, but he was resigned to making the best of it. The X-Men would stay on base or with SG-1 until the mission's completion, and promised not mention a word about the SGC even to their teammates. They agreed to follow the Jack's orders too, but Jack was still cautious. This had been a dangerous enough mission _before_ the civilians had been added to the mix, and was doubtful to get better, so needless to say, he was not inclined to be thrilled about anything the mutants said or did.

The next day, Sam and Daniel had narrowed the search for Luthro down to two men, and called for Rogue and Remy to finger him.

"The one of the right," Rogue said, nodding toward Daniel's computer. Daniel swiveled his chair toward Sam's workstation as best he could without rudely dislodging Rogue from the arm of his chair.

"Sam, it's Bryant Vaughn," Daniel had the pictures and names on his computer, but not much else. Sam immediately started tapping keys on her keyboard. Remy stared intently over her shoulder at the screen. Finally, the file came up.

Sam opened the file. "Here's our boy. Printing… now."

She and Remy looked up as the printer above her head started spitting out papers. The Cajun thief started gathering the information, glancing through them instead of passing them to Sam. Daniel and Rogue abandoned Daniel's station to join them.

"Born in New Hampshire… lived in LA last…" Remy read snippets aloud, thoughtfully, not really interested if the others could understand his muttering, "Got a ticket in Colorado… stayed at a motel in Texas – sure likes bouncin' 'round…" The mutant suddenly straightened looking at the sheaf of papers with more interest. "_Mais_, here's somet'in," he said more clearly, "our boy Lut'ro was definitely in New York de last few days. Paid a fine fer parkin' in a _no parkin'_ zone an' rented an apartment."

Sam twisted in her chair to look up at Remy. "Does it say where he is now?"

Remy flipped through the papers. "Uhhh…"

He passed them down to Sam when he couldn't find the information immediately. She skim-read the material and turned to the next page. A few pages later she found it. She held up her hand, excited. Rogue and Daniel went on either side of Remy so they too could look over Sam's shoulder. Sam didn't even notice them come closer.

"Here we go!" she grinned, "He ate out at a buffet and checked into a hotel just outside of Pittsburgh ten minutes ago."

Daniel's face lit up. "I'll go tell Jack." He took the papers from Sam and darted out the door.

Sam nodded. "I'll let Dad, Teal'c, and Bra'tac know that we have a lead and that we should be ready to go." She motioned to Remy and Rogue as she exited the file. "Come on; you're going to need some gear."


	7. Chapter 7

Flying was the swiftest option, so they hitched a ride an Air Force hop heading overseas that was nevertheless willing to make a detour to drop them off. The team sat in the baggage slings at the back of the plane, trying to get somewhat comfortable in spite of the jarring bumps. Rogue curled up in a corner all by herself, taking an active part in the conversation, but too nervous about one of the bumps sending her careening into someone to physically join the others.

Although she got some curious looks, no one made a fuss about her "aloofness", so eventually she was able to relax and stop thinking about her hated ability to unintentionally drain someone of their memories and personality at skin-to-skin contact.

"So what are the old-fashioned weapons for fighting vampires, kids, or will a P-90 do the job just as well as anything else?" Jack, as usual, had a big role in the conversation, leading, yet keeping the atmosphere light. Rogue couldn't help but think how different his style of leadership was from the X-Man's reserved chief, Cyclops. Her lips quirked as she tried to imagine Scott making smart-aleck cracks as he prepared for a mission

There was silence. Suddenly Rogue realized that everyone was looking at her. "What?" she asked self-consciously, embarrassed that her mind had so obviously wandered.

"You were de one who dealt wit' Lut'ro an' vampires in general de longest," Remy remarked in a tone that spoke of him already saying this more than once, "We were wonderin' if ya could come up wit' any insights." Rogue could read between the lines and in his tone and expression the sardonic query: _Care to grace us with your attention?_

She flashed him as much as nasty look as she could without seeming to the others that she was overreacting. Daniel must have noticed anyway, because he started babbling.

"I just finished talking about stakes and holy water and crucifixes," he volunteered, "Do you think the P-90s will do any good, or do we have to go shopping?"

Rogue shook her auburn head. "Ah don' think ya little guns are gonna do much good against anyone 'cept the Jaffa-fellas. We're gonna hafta pick up some o' the good ol' fashioned stuff, an' pack some really bright flashlights or somethin'."

"Vampires hate bright light," she explained almost as an afterthought. _Which was why it's so strange_, she mused, _that Luthro's attack was durin' the _day_…_

"But Lut'ro's attack was durin' de day," Remy protested. Unlike Rogue, Remy hadn't done much with vampires. He had heard about the X-Men's missions against them, but he hadn't actually taken part. So, like with SG-1, Bra'tac, and Jacob, this was still pretty new to him.

"Ah know," Rogue admitted freely, "That bothers me too. Makes me wonder if Baba or what_ever_-his-name-is hasn't perhaps changed the way our vampires are wired somehow." She shrugged. "If that's so, Ah can't help y'all there; Ah only know what Ah found out from facin' up 'gainst Dracula an' his covey."

Jack sighed, pressing the back of his head to the plane's sides as he looked up at the sloped ceiling above. "Okay," he decided, his voice resigned to their unfortunate circumstances, "We arm as we usually would against Jaffa, and get some traditional vampire weapons to boot. It looks like our best defense in this situation is going to be preparation. I want everyone to share everything they find out new about the vampires when they're fighting them. If they start spitting fire or make the holy water evaporate, I want to hear about it. Any questions?"

There were none. Sam checked her P-90 and her handguns to make sure they were loaded before the plane landed, and Gambit went through his duster pockets, silently counting the packs of playing cards he had hidden there.

Jack's radio crackled. "Sir, I'll have to let you off here."

"Okay, Captain; thanks for the ride. Enjoy your trip." Jack nodded at his team to be ready to leave. Daniel started sorting through his backpack making sure he had everything, and Teal'c and helped him shove that one stubborn notebook down farther down so the flap would close.

Jack cocked an eyebrow at his team archeologist, but refrained from responding as the hop landed and the pilot spoke again. "We've landed, sir."

Biting back a sarcastic "_ya think?"_, Jack instead said, "Thanks, Captain."

"Let's go," he added to his enlarged team.

It took a little while, but soon enough they were all out of the plane and waving goodbye to the departing hop. Jack put his sunglasses on and pulled his baseball cap lower over his eyes. "Carter, do we have a map of the city or something?" he asked Sam.

"Yessir," the blond Major replied, grabbing Daniel and turning him around so his back faced her. Daniel sighed, but let her rifle through his stuffed backpack to find the map in question, "Got it off the internet when I got the directions from the airport to the hotel."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "Gotta love MapQuest."

"Yessir." Sam pushed the map into her jacket pocket and worked at getting all of Daniel's stuff back in his bag. Daniel stood there patiently, although with slightly disgruntled look on his face.

"Gee, Daniel," she grunted, cramming a paperback behind some ammo, "Think you brought enough stuff?"

"I wanted to bring more," Daniel said honestly, his feet beginning to tap a little bit with impatience, "Uh – not that I want to rush you or anything, Sam – but are you done yet?"

"Just about." Sam shoved the last object in and snapped the pack shut before it could pop up again. "There you go, Daniel, you're free."

Rogue looked at Daniel curiously. "What're ya carryin' in there anyways?"

Daniel shifted his backpack upward a little on his shoulders, causing his hat to fall off in the process. Teal'c handed the floppy hat back to Daniel, but Jack took it from his hand, instead pulling Daniel's hood over his head and jamming the hat into Daniel's pocket.

"Less chance of accidents that way," O'Neill remarked dryly.

Daniel rolled his blue eyes at Jack, and then turned his attention to Rogue. "Ammo, a P-90, some grenades… books."

The group started on their way as Sam and Jacob moved ahead, taking point. Teal'c and Jack walked leisurely behind them, and Bra'tac fell back a bit to be even with Remy. This left Daniel and Rogue at the caboose of the human train, looking for all the world like stragglers in a sight-seeing group.

"What d'ya need books fer on a mission?" Rogue queried, rolling up the neck of her bomber jacket as high as it would go. It still didn't do much to protect her ears from the cold, and Daniel passed her the floppy hat Jack had put in his pocket. Rogue looked at the geeky hat for one moment; then gratefully accepted it.

"Thanks," she said, slamming it on her head and turning the rim down in the sides and back so it would cover her ears.

"No problem," Daniel acknowledged absent-mindedly. He was apparently more interested in answering her question correctly than accepting her thanks. Chivalry was no big deal to him; it was just how he was.

"I'm an archeologist," he explained, breaking into Rogue's musings, "I study ancient Egyptian and other ancient cultures. I know much of it by heart, but even I need some reference once in a while to help me along. Sort of a spur, you see."

"Ahh." Rogue nodded even though she really didn't see. The very idea of memorizing ancient cultures sent her brain careening toward overload.

_Danny_, she thought ruefully, _is obviously a lot smarter an' a lot more driven than Ah'll evah be._

Daniel had started babbling about some ancient culture or another, and Rogue found herself tuning him out. She nodded at all the appropriate times and murmured acknowledgement, but she really wasn't paying attention. Instead her eyes were searching for possible threats; something that Daniel, no doubt, had forgotten he was supposed to be doing in his enthusiasm over finding a receptive audience.

So when Bra'tac and Remy turned into a building to their right, Rogue had to poke Daniel to get him back to earth. "Danny, Bra'tac an' Remy jus' turned up ahead."

Daniel blinked, and unresistingly followed the pull on his arm that led him to the building that his friends had entered. It was, Rogue now realized, a Wal-Mart; they had just entered from the back way.

Remy and Bra'tac were going through the garlic on display, and Rogue tried not to giggle at the disgusted look on Bra'tac's face.

Daniel grinned over at her, obviously picking up on it too. "I guess Bra'tac doesn't like the smell of garlic."

"Poor Remy," Rogue chuckled, "Bra'tac looks like he wants t' smash all o' them."

Remy was oblivious to Daniel and Rogue's entrance, instead arguing with Bra'tac about the wisdom of keeping the garlic intact.

"They smell like poison," Bra'tac declared, glaring suspiciously at the pale vegetables. His hands twitched for want of a staff weapon or some other blunt object.

"Dat what de vampires don' like about dem," Remy insisted, tossing his auburn bangs out of his eyes, "An' it ain't poison t' _us_; it's only dat way t' de vampires. 'Sides, if ya smash all de garlic, _mon ami_, ev'ryone in de store'll notice an' dat'll take away our element o' surprise. _Yeuhrm_? If de bad guys come askin' after us, de store folks'll remember us as dose guys who smashed all de garlic."

Bra'tac didn't look pleased about this, but Daniel stopped Rogue from stepping in. "Bra'tac's a warrior," the archeologist told her, "and your friend just gave him a tactical reason not to destroy the garlic. He may argue about it for a little while more, but in the end, the garlic will be safe."

Rogue looked doubtfully back at Remy and Bra'tac as Daniel led her toward where Sam and Jacob were by the jewelry. "Ah hope yer right."

"I know Bra'tac," Daniel said confidently, "He'll be fine."

Sam looked up from the cross display when she heard them coming. "Hi, guys, do you think this is enough?" She held up the eight crosses she had selected.

Rogue fingered one of the larger ones. "Mebbe we should get a few extra – jus' in case."

"What? Is everyone trying to spend my money now?" Jacob protested with feigned annoyance. He leaned on the display counter, shaking his head. The saleslady looked at him once; then ignored him to turn to another customer.

Sam grinned impishly. "Yeah, Dad, that's it; we're going on a buying spree."

Rogue clicked her tongue in mock scolding. "Y'all should know better than lettin' two gals loose in a store."

"Uh… I agree with Rogue actually," Daniel inserted, breaking the mood, "I think we should get more crosses. Better safe than sorry and all that." 

"Whoa! Is that _Daniel_ I hear talking?" Jack came up behind them, pushing a large basket full of wooden stakes. "Somebody pinch me."

Teal'c looked at him in confusion; reached over and pinched him.

Jack glared at him. "Ow."

"You said for someone to pinch you, O'Neill," Teal'c said solemnly, "I was just doing as you requested."

"I didn't mean…" Jack sighed and gave it up. He turned back to Daniel. "_Any_way, as weird as it was to hear you say 'better safe than sorry', what exactly are we talking about here. What are we doing so we'll be safe rather than sorry?"

Daniel quickly composed his face. "Getting more crosses than eight." He managed to say it while only letting out the smallest of giggles.

"Okay, yeah, good idea. Carter?" Jack looked over at Sam.

Sam and Rogue turned as one from where they were gathered around the jewelry display. Rogue showed Jack the objects in her hands. "Ah've got what we need. Ah grabbed eight extra ones. Ya know, two fer everybody."

Jack nodded turned the cart around. "Great. Let's pack up, kids, gather Gambit, Bra'tac, and the garlic, and get going."

"What about the holy water?" Sam asked following Jack and Teal'c to the produce area.

"Ah have some," Rogue volunteered, "My foster-brother's a seminarian an' he gave me a flask t' keep on me. We'll probably have t' get more water blessed though."

Jacob disappeared momentarily from where he was trailing behind everybody, and joined them a few minutes later. He dumped the 16 large bottles of water clutched in his arms into the basket. "You think this is enough?"

Jack looked at the load he was pushing, mentally computing how much this was going to cost. He sighed and dug into his back pocket for his wallet. "Gosh, I hope so." He looked over at Sam. "You think they take credit here?"

"Oh, yeah, sir, they take credit," Sam confirmed with a grin.

"She should know," muttered Jacob. Daniel smothered another chuckle.

"An' yeah, Ah think it'll be enough," Rogue added, answering Jacob's question, "Jus' don' spray it on a vampire 'less ya hafta. Sometimes jus' the presence of holy water freaks 'em out."

"Great," Jack nodded, stopping at the produce stands, "then our next step is to find the local Catholic Church. Get on it, Carter."

"Yessir." Sam pulled out her map and made a beeline for a nearby salesman. The two of them started talking and Sam made notes on her map.

Jack caught Remy's eye and jerked his head, indicating that he wanted him and Bra'tac to come over. Remy gave the slightest of nods and picked up the bag full of garlic, saying something softly to Bra'tac. Bra'tac threw a look over in Jack's direction, and the two began weaving their way through the grocery shoppers toward Jack and the others.

"Gotta love de Super Wal-Marts," Remy remarked dryly upon joining them, "Got ev'ryt'ing an' are always crowded." He put the bag in Jack's basket with everything else. Sam came back with the map.

"St. Joseph's is a few streets down, sir," the Major explained, "On Maple Street. The man said we couldn't miss it."

"All right then," Jack said, "Let's pay for this junk."

The line was thankfully short in spite of the crowed nature of the food aisles, and the team was very soon having their merchandise rung up by a college-age cashier with purple hair and an earring in his eyebrow. The young man snickered. "What's up, man," he sneered at Jack as he started putting stuff in bags, "You going _vampire_ hunting or something?"

He grinned as he waved his hand over the object he was bagging. "Just can't get enough of _Van Helsing_ can you?"

"Actually," Jack replied as civilly as he could, "I'm more of a Dracula fan."

"I prefer Dorian Gray," Daniel muttered.

The cashier ignored Daniel, mentally labeling him as a geek as he took in his glasses and floppy hair. He rattled a price off at Jack. Jack paid, but not without a grimace.


	8. Chapter 8

"I'm owed _big time_," Jack complained as they walked out of the store. Luckily, everyone else's bags didn't have the overload of books that Daniel's did, so with some rearranging between them, everyone ended up carrying their quota of weapons, traditional or otherwise.

"Is it just me," Jacob asked, looking around as they tried to find Maple Street, "Or is everyone around us now jumpy?"

Bra'tac's head jerked up and he began studying the area with increased awareness. "They are indeed. Your senses are fine."

Jack didn't like the sound of that. "Okay, kids, keep sharp. There's Maple."

Sam's informant was right; there was no way they could have missed St. Joseph's. The church was large and elegant with an old-fashioned bell tower sending supplications up to God like the crucified Christ did from where his wooden crucifix was planted in the ground. The sight was enough to take the group's breath away, but Jack recovered before the others. He poked Teal'c, who was transfixed by this part of Tau'ri life he had not yet seen. "C'mon, let's get this water blessed."

Daniel was the last to wander into the church, walking backwards as he went, taking in the stained glass windows, the ornate statues, and the beautiful paintings. He found himself walking right into Remy's back, and the younger man steadied him, preventing the archeologist from taking an undignified topple to the marble floor.

"Wow," Daniel grinned, accepting the help unconsciously. There were no hieroglyphs on the walls or artifacts lying around, but the building was still awe-inspiring.

"Kinda impressive, ain't it?" Remy agreed, only keeping half an eye on his surroundings. His thieving instincts were begging too hard for him to take something for him to allow himself to notice the richness of the church too much. He shoved his hands into his pockets to squelch the temptation.

"Yeah," Daniel breathed behind him, his hand tracing the intricate design carved in the side of the nearest pew.

A priest entered the church from a side door near the altar, and Jack, after a somewhat awkward genuflect, hurried to flag him down. Daniel threw Remy an alarmed look, and, fearing that Jack would be less than diplomatic, moved past the thief to catch up with his friend.

"Could you give us a second, Father?" Jack called, his voice echoing in the emptiness of the majestic church.

The priest looked up in alarm, noticing them for the first time. He had probably had to worry about vandals and/or thieves before, Daniel mused.

Jack held up his hands pacifyingly, well aware of how rough his little group of warriors looked. "We aren't here to rob you, Father."

Daniel came up beside Jack and pulled the water bottle out of his friend's pack. "We just have some water for you to bless," Daniel soothed in his best diplomatic tone.

The archeologist's voice and bearing worked it's magic, and the priest relaxed a little. "Oh, is that all?" the prelate smiled, letting out some air as he did so. "How much?"

Daniel bowed his head. "Sixteen bottles, Father."

The priest's eyebrows shot up. "Sixteen… Why in Heaven and on Earth would you…?" He stopped himself. "Bring them over. I'll bless the bottles for you."

"Thank you, Father." Daniel smiled beatifically. The others in the group brought their water forward, and muttering some words and making the Sign of the Cross of the water bottles, the priest performed the ritual.

"Your water is blessed," the clergyman informed them.

"Thanks, Father," Jack said, nodding at the others to put their bottles away. They did so, but Teal'c froze in mid-motion, eyes darting around.

Jack turned. "Teal'c?"

The priest halted his progress toward the vestibule. "Is there something I might do for you?" he asked Teal'c. To his credit, his voice only wavered a little, in spite of how intimidating the Jaffa looked with the scowl on his face.

Now Bra'tac too cocked his head to listen. The two Jaffas' eyes met and they nodded in agreement.

"You have heard it as well," Teal'c remarked to his mentor.

Bra'tac nodded again. "I have," he said solemnly.

"Heard what?" Jack demanded, his voice tight. His hand floated toward the place in his jacket where his handgun was hidden.

Teal'c shoved the bottle into his pack while his other hand snaked to his own pocket, the one with the zat. "We are about to have company, O'Neill."

Jack cursed softly and turned back to the priest. "Father, get yourself out of here."

The priest's brown eyes widened. "Why? What's going to happen?" He unconsciously crossed himself.

Teal'c had turned to view the door, and now whirled to take two steps closer to Jack. "Now, O'Neill!" he bellowed.

"Move!" Jack yelled at the priest. The priest's eyes began to snap with indignation, but then there was a loud cracking noise and Jack wasn't worried about the other's feelings anymore.

Instincts alone saved them. Jack tackled the priest, pulling them both under the altar. Simultaneously, everyone else dove into the pews, cowering as low as possible. Remy pushed Sam underneath him on the marble floor, and Rogue shielded them both as best she could. Teal'c shoved Daniel _under_ a pew and then flattened himself next to him. Bra'tac and Jacob followed suit.

The ceiling of the great church collapsed with a swiftness that would have shocked anyone watching. The rumbling filled the air like an angry predator's roar, and dust filled the air, waiting to choke anyone foolish enough to try to breath before it dissipated. With an effort the survivors tried to hold their breath, and to wait the disaster out. Half an hour later, Jack deemed it safe to find a way out of their mess.

He signaled the priest to stay still for a little while longer, and the man nodded his understanding. Jack opened a channel on his radio. "Teal'c? Daniel? Carter? Anybody? You guys still alive down there? I can't see you past all this junk."

There was a pause, and just as Jack was beginning to worry, Teal'c answered. "Danieljackson and I are well, O'Neill."

Jack breathed a little easier. "And Carter and everyone else?"

"Gambit, Rogue, and I are accounted for as well, sir," Sam's voice crackled through the radio, "Rogue, you okay? You took most of the debris on yourself."

"Ah'm fine," the younger woman's voice came over the radio dimly, "Ah'm invulnerable, remember?"

"Must come in handy," Jack remarked, breathing easier still in spite of the light dust still floating in the air. _Two more left to go._ "Jake? Bra'tac?"

This reply took a little while longer, but finally it came through. "We're both fine," Jacob said, his voice cutting in and out. "Sorry about that, Jack; my radio got damaged, and I don't know if Bra'tac's survived."

"But you two are both fine, right?" Jack demanded, needing confirmation. His eyes stared at the rubble boxing him in under the altar as if sheer will power could make it burn to dust.

"Perfectly," Jacob verified, "Can't talk much longer, Jack. Radio stinks and… need to… out…"

Jacob's connection dropped off. Jack hoped it was just because the two older men had decided to stop wasting time talking and to start digging. He was not, he told himself fiercely, going to even consider the other possibility.

"Alright, kids," he said opening a channel to everyone but Jacob and Bra'tac, "You heard Jacob. He and Bra'tac are digging out. We probably should too. O'Neill out."

Jack closed the channel and surveyed the mess around him. The priest studied him curiously.

"You're a soldier," the clergyman deduced.

_Gee, ya think, Sherlock?_ Jack bit back the nasty, and unwarranted retort. This wasn't the priest's fault; there was no need to take his frustration out on him.

"Air Force, actually," Jack replied more pleasantly, "but you were close."

He started pushing at rocks, looking for a weak spot and hoping that if he did find one it wouldn't send a ton of stone toppling on him. "I'm trying to dig us out of here, Father; I'm looking for a weakness."

"Can I help?" the priest offered, already starting to tentatively shove at their solid jail.

Jack thought about it and shrugged. "Yeah, sure, why not? The more the merrier."

It took them another half hour to get out, and twenty minutes more to help everyone else out. Other than some minor nicks and bruises, amazingly no one was injured. Bra'tac's radio was found intact, and Sam promised to take a look at her dad's later.

Meanwhile, there were still some sounds of action going on the streets.

"Father, get out of here," Jack ordered, feeling like a parrot, "it's for your own protection."

This time the priest listened, but first he made a detour to the tabernacle that had somehow avoided being damaged. He wrapped the hosts inside in a clean handkerchief, and put them in a bag around his neck. "God bless you," he whispered, making the Sign of the Cross over them.

"Get out of here," Jack hissed. The priest ducked out the door, and they could hear his car starting.

"Thank God," Sam breathed. She pulled her P-90 from her bag as well as a stake. Rogue reached over and clipped a cross around her neck. Everyone else also put one on and armed themselves. Rogue then took to air, grabbing Remy around the back and under his arms. The two of them flew over the walls and to the streets below.

Jack nodded at the waiting Teal'c and Bra'tac, raising his P-90 to cover the door. "Go."

The two Jaffa pulled open the heavy doors, showing those remaining in the church the streets they had just left hours before. The cityscape was wrecked, cars were burning and buildings had collapsed. Rogue was hovering just above the pavement, still gripping Remy, her jaw working angrily as she stared at destruction around her.

"Keep sharp…" Jack began to say, but he never got to finish his sentence. A flash of color whizzed through the air and knocked Rogue out of position. Remy plummeted down, but was lucky enough to land on his feet. Regaining his balance, he flicked out his bo-staff, his eyes searching for the enemy.

Really, all that was necessary was to follow the scuffling noises. It sounded like King-Kong had just taken on Godzilla, and though he knew he had to, it was really not a fight that Jack looked forward to involving his team in.

"Let's go!" he ordered. "Gambit, Carter, Jacob head right! Teal'c, Bra'tac take the left! Daniel, you're with me!"

His orders were immediately followed, although Jack got the feeling that Remy would have gone to Rogue's aid whether or not he had had Jack's permission. Jack grimaced and pulled his P-90 and a stake loose. He looked over at Daniel who was equally ready with holy water and a zat. The archeologist nodded at Jack grimly and the teammates headed toward the sound of battle.

Once again, only their battle honed instincts saved them. Jack heard the swooshing of the air and hit the ground. Behind him he could hear Daniel gasp and do the same. Since the super monsters' fight was still going on ahead of them, a bad feeling told Jack that they had more to deal with than one vampire.

The colonel came to his feet swiftly, tracking anything that moved with his gun. Daniel grabbed Jack's fallen stake and held it in the hand that carried the holy water.

"Daniel?!" Jack demanded.

"I don't see anyone, Jack," the archeologist confirmed.

Another wind-like noise prompted the two men to hit the ground once more, this time holding onto their weapons a little better. They could hear the mocking laughter. Jack swore. "Darn, they're fast."

"You saw two also?" Daniel asked, pulling himself into a kneeling position. His blue eyes shifted around, looking for any sign of their enemy.

Jack snorted. "I saw a blur."

The two men stood up again. This time they were ready when the vampires came around again. There were actually three, two males and a female.

Jack fired his P-90 at them, and Daniel zatted the female. The bullets seemed to pass right through them, and the woman vampire shrugged off the effects of the zat.

Daniel looked at Jack. "This could be a problem."

"Ya think?" O'Neill let the P-90 hang over his shoulder and reached for the stake in Daniel's backpack. The vampires charged them and the two men tumbled backwards into the building behind them. Jack was unarmed except for the worthless P-90, and Daniel couldn't get the stake is his hand into fighting position quick enough. Daniel's eyes widened with fear and he convulsively squeezed the water bottle, using the stake to press even deeper into the plastic. At the last minute, he thought to un-pop the top, and the sports bottle spewed the water all over the approaching vampires. Jack ducked behind Daniel and pulled the stake out of his backpack. The vampires shivered and stopped for a second, but then attacked with renewed fervor.

Jack swore as he positioned himself next Daniel. "Aren't afraid of sunlight. Aren't afraid of holy water. That's two weapons down, three to go."

Daniel opened his mouth to answer, but just then one of the male vampires flew right at them, claws extended and mouth open. Daniel and Jack dove away from each other to keep from being scratched or bitten, Daniel hitting the floor while Jack's back made contact with a wall. Before Jack knew what was happening, the wall had revolved, and he was facing a whole different room.


	9. Chapter 9

Jack whirled around, stake ready. "Daniel?!" he called frantically. The archeologist didn't answer, and when Jack tried his radio, he came across some kind of interference.

"Your friend is not here, Colonel."

Jack twisted around again at the sound of the other voice. His free hand reached for his P-90. The voice laughed in soft amusement. "Your weapon will do no harm against me, Colonel."

"Who the heck are you?" Jack snapped, his fear overridden by training, "And if I can't hurt you, why are you hiding? And what did you do with Daniel?"

"So many questions," the voice crooned, "so little patience."

Jack was getting really tired of this. Daniel obviously wasn't around here, which meant that he was alone facing three vampires. The thought did _not_ put Jack O'Neill in a happy mood.

"Look," he said as civilly as he could, "I've got a friend out there who's likely getting himself killed. So if it's all the same to you, I'm leaving now to help him."

He pushed the wall he had come by, looking for the mechanism that made it spin. It wouldn't move. Jack hoped that didn't mean it only swung one way. It might be a very long time before someone pushed from the other end, especially if Daniel didn't make it out of his fight alive.

"You cannot leave unless I let you," the voice told him in a reasonable tone, "Only I can make the dimensions meld."

Jack blinked. "Huh?" He waved a hand, deciding he didn't care. "Never mind. Why don't you just let me leave, okay? Talk someone else to death… I've got a world to save." That came out a little more sarcastically than he'd intended, but then again Jack had always had trouble controlling his mouth. Words seemed to spill out almost in spite of him.

Once again Jack got the distinct feeling that he was being laughed at. "So impatient."

With an effort Jack bit back a nasty remark. "Very. So if you have something to say, just spit it out before I start shooting things. Like this door."

Jack didn't know if shooting the door would do him any good, but it would sure make him feel better. _A grenade_, he decided, _will work better._ It wasn't quite as satisfying, but that was life.

He reached back for his pack… only to find it gone. Jack's eyes widened in the darkness as his hand searched his back frantically for his backpack. Nope, it was gone all right.

"What'd you do with my things?!" Jack yelled at the voice. His own voice bounced angrily off the walls back at him.

"Your plan," the other voice said disapprovingly, "Would not have worked, but it would have potentially injured you. You must control your violent desires, Colonel, if you are to take the gift I am to give you."

Jack felt like he was all of six. He glared into the darkness sullenly. "Look, pal, the only gift I'll be happy to see is Daniel alive and safe, my weapons, and no vampires or other monsters on Earth. Somehow I don't think that's what you had in mind, since I was well on my way to obtaining those things when you grabbed me."

Okay, that was stretching the truth a bit, but Jack wasn't in the mood to quibble over details right now. Silence filled the space around him. Jack could almost see the disappointment in the air.

O'Neill sighed as it slowly sunk in that he wasn't going anywhere until he made his unwanted host happy. "Okay, what's the big, all important gift?" he asked ungraciously.

A soft chuckle filled the air. "You are slow, Colonel, but you eventually arrive."

A soft globe of white suddenly floated in front of Jack's face, and he pulled back in alarm. When it didn't chase him, he drew closer to study it. It was, he realized, actually a crystal that was glowing with some kind of weird inner light. Carter could probably tell him the science of why it was doing what it was, but to Jack it was just amazing.

"What is it?" he asked, not quite ready to touch it until he knew it wasn't going to kill him.

The voice laughed at his caution. Apparently Jack amused him very much. "It is a postbite."

Jack blinked. "A _what_?"

"A postbite. To use terms you would understand, a de-vampire-device. It changes vampires back into their original forms. They still have the memories and the desire to return to vampirism, but basically they will be human."

Jack stared at the glowing crystal. "Will it hurt normal humans or anyone who isn't vampire?"

The voice seemed to smile. "Indeed not, Colonel. It works only against vampires. I should know; I made it to fight them."

Jack tried to locate the owner of the voice with his eyes. "If you're so willing to take care of vampire problems, why didn't you come to work this thing yourself, instead of wasting your time explaining it to me?"

The voice sighed. "How I wish I could, but I cannot survive in your world. I only knew how to contact you because the Ascended pointed your team out to me one time. Take care of the vampires, Colonel. They can be a difficult opponent, especially as changed as they are from my people's misplaced kindness in manipulating the vampiric process. Now they will all be more difficult to kill because we meant to be kind to strangers to our world. No traditional methods will harm them; only the crystal will help you. You are smarter than you let others believe, Colonel, I trust that you will be able to use the crystal to your world's advantage."

A gust of wind filled the empty room, blowing Jack against the door/wall. _Goodbye and Good luck_, the air whispered, and then all was silent.

"You're gonna let me out, right?" Jack called to the emptiness. When he received no answer, he tentatively reached out and grabbed the crystal. It was a little bigger than his fist, and gave him a warm humming feeling in his hand. He felt a tug on his back, and startled, he reached back with his other hand to touch it. His pack was there again.

Jack smiled grimly. "This is more like it."

Stuffing the stake into his bag, he carried the crystal in one hand and began to push against the door/wall with his shoulder and back.

The door swung around again, and once more Jack was facing the battlefield. The three vampires were still around, but the fact that they were ransacking the place as if they were looking for something told him that Daniel wasn't only alive and well, but also safely hidden.

Jack walked boldly over, hoping this wouldn't prove to be his last mistake. "Hey, guys," he smiled, getting right in their faces, "do you know what this thing is?" He waved the crystal at them.

The female screamed and crumpled to the ground, grabbing her head. Jack wasn't as close to the male vampires, and the two creatures took to air and fled when they saw what happened to their companion. Jack waited a few minutes before he could get the nerve up to touch the cowering girl.

She looked up at him, tears streaming down her face. He grinned in relief as he noted the size of her teeth. _Oh, yeah, she's de-vampired_.

"You okay?" he asked, giving her a helping hand up.

She took it shakily and stood. "No."

Jack laughed softly. "Well, that's an honest answer at least. Ma'am, we have a small vampire problem. The best thing for you to do is hide and wait this thing out, okay? Get into a hole and stay there."

Her lip trembled in terror, but she tried to stay calm. "Will my car trunk do?"

"Perfect," Jack said, "Run."

She took him at his word and took off, her shoes clack clacking on the rubble-covered floor. Jack hoped she would be all right, but at this moment he had to find Daniel.

"Daniel?" he called softly, "Are you there? Danny?"

"Jack?" A broken piece of ceiling jiggled, and Jack yanked it aside. There was Daniel, stuck in a hole that looked like it used to be where the toilet sat. Jack smothered a snicker and tried to help Daniel out.

Daniel was crammed in there pretty tight, but between the two of them they got it done. "Jack," Daniel said immediately after being freed, "the stake, the cross, and the onions don't work either. Just cause them to pause and get mad."

"Yeah, I know." With that Jack sat down to explain what had happened to him while Daniel had been fighting for his life.

"We have to get to Sam, Teal'c, and the others," Daniel remarked as he listened with wide eyes, "This thing… this _crystal_; it might be their only chance."

Jack nodded. "Yeah." He glanced at Daniel. "You up to this?"

Daniel let his friend help him to his feet. "As long as you have that crystal, I'm ready for anything."

Sam was very relieved when Jack and Daniel showed up with their new toy. Her vampires didn't even need a demonstration of the thing's power; the minute Jack approached, they fled, warning Jacob and Remy's opponents as they went.

Remy stared after the fleeing vampires in surprise. "What de heck…?"

Jack shrugged. "New weapon. I'll explain it later."

"Word must have gotten around," Daniel noted, nodding in the direction the enemy had gone.

"Yeah," Jack said, looking pleased in spite of himself, "Too bad for them, huh? Gives us some breathing room."

"Good thing you came when you did, sir," Sam put in, "We were just about to be overrun. None of our weapons work against them."

"I know," Daniel and Jack answered simultaneously.

Jack looked at Daniel; then returned his attention to Carter. He waved his free hand. "Like I said, I'll explain it later. Right now we need to find Rogue, Bra'tac, and Teal'c."

Bra'tac and Teal'c were doing well in spite of their lack of weapons, but even they looked grateful for the respite. As one, the group then paraded down the streets looking for Rogue.

They found her a few blocks down, still tussling with Luthro. Luthro's body jerked as he felt the presence of the crystal and with a hiss he pushed Rogue away from him.

He glared at Jack, keeping his distance. "The Vwaq managed to contact you then." He sounded furious.

Jack cocked his head. "Big voice? Fond of large, dark rooms? Easily amused? Yeah, they found us." He held up the crystal with a smirk. "Gave us a little gift, too. You recognize it perhaps?"

"The Master will not be pleased." Luthro did not sound pleased himself, although he was retreating rather than attacking. "No, he will not be pleased at all."

"Oh… well that's too bad," Jack cooed, "tell the snakehead how _sorry_ we are."

Luthro's eyes glowed red with frustrated blood lust. "I shall. This new development will have no effect on our plans, I assure you."

With a wave of his hand, he disappeared.

The team stood there, staring where Luthro once was.

"Darn," Jack finally whispered. He looked at Rogue. "Do you have any idea of _what_ plans he was talking about?"

Rogue shook her head. "Too busy fightin' fer mah life Ah'm afraid."

Sam nodded toward the crystal in Jack's hands. "That seems pretty powerful, sir. Can it tell us?"

Jack looked down at it; weighed it in his hands. He glanced back up at Sam a little sheepishly. "Aahh… I don't know," he admitted, "the Vwa… whatever it was called didn't explain very much. Guess he actually wanted me to use my brain."

"Ouch," Daniel muttered, "Picked the wrong guy."

Jack threw him a nasty look. Daniel looked up apologetically. "Just kidding," the archeologist said quickly.

O'Neill rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to Sam. "It's a crystal. It de-vampirizes. That's all I know."

He passed it to SG-1's astrophysicist. Sam took it and brought it close too her face, her eyes narrowing as she studied it. Her fingers played along the multifaceted surfaces.

"Well," she murmured, "It's got some kind of internal light source. Can't tell what, though. It might be some kind of radiation." She glanced up at her CO. "That could be what's affecting the vampires."

"But… not affecting us," Daniel added thoughtfully.

"Right…" Sam said. She stared at the weapon. "It could be created specifically to attack a DNA strand found only in vampires."

"That… guy…" Jack put in, "he did say that it wouldn't bother normal humans."

"But there's only one," Jacob pointed out, shifting his weight, "That's not going to help us if we don't know where the vampires are going."

The team stared at each other thoughtfully.

"Darn it anyway," Jack grimaced.

"No, no, no," Daniel said, putting a hand up and pressing the other one in a fist against his forehead. His brow crinkled thoughtfully, and he shut his eyes as if to block all else out. "This could still work."

Jack looked up at the tone in Daniel's voice. He _knew_ that tone. Daniel usually used it when he was about to come up with something brilliant. "Daniel?" he probed.

Daniel opened his eyes. "Washington," he blurted.

Jack gave him a blank look. "What about it?"

"That's where they'll go next," Daniel explained, tripping over his words in his excitement, "Baba is ostensibly in charge of this; somehow got a foothold with the vampires. Typically, a Gao'uld would want to convince the leader of a conquered planet that he or she is their god." In a slightly muted tone, he added: "Of course, in our case, since our planet's been so difficult, the said Gao'uld just might consider it less time-consuming and more satisfying to just… _eliminate_ the president."

"And they can get all their information about our politics from our vampirized people," Sam added, catching on. She turned to Jack, and passed the crystal back to him. "This could just work, sir."

"We don't know for sure that Baba is even here," Jack protested. There were too many holes in this plan for his liking.

Sam grimaced. "It's the best lead we've got, sir."

Jack chewed on the inside of his mouth. She had a point, whether he liked it or not. He sighed. Ultimately, it was his decision, and like it or not, they had to do something. "Fine, we catch the next flight to DC. Hopefully we can make it there before the vampires do. Jacob, Gambit, Teal'c: you three head back to the Mountain and let General Hammond know what's going on. Don't let him send any backup; we don't need to worry about shooting our own vampirized men on top of everything else."

"We will return as soon as we are able, O'Neill." Teal'c said solemnly.

"If you can," Jack replied, "Try to meet us at the airport. If we aren't there, head for Washington."

"Too bad you can't just deactivate the vampires' transportation abilities," Jacob remarked, shouldering his P-90, "Then you would be sure to beat them to Washington."

The crystal in Jack's hands glowed. "Deactivating transportation device now." It paused. "Transportation device deactivated."

Jack blinked. "Whoa."

Daniel stepped closer, pushing up his glasses. He cleared his throat. "Crystal, reverse all the vampire transformations."

The crystal seemed to think about that. "Impossible. Must be within touching distance of said vampire."

"Well, Ah guess that woulda been too easy," Rogue remarked dryly.

Jack looked around him at his extended team, feeling pride in the fact that every one of them, even Gambit and Rogue looked ready for action. "Alright, kids, we've got a go. Let's go save the world. Again."

Luthro knelt before the golden throne, the other displays around it seeming to do homage as well.

"My Lord," he whispered, placing his right fist over his heart.

The figure seated in the throne looked up. His face was aristocratic and sported a small, well-trimmed goatee and mustache. Rogue would not have needed to look for the pointed ears and sharp teeth to be able to recognize the X-Men's old foe Dracula. The vampire king's eyes flashed with an eerie light, and he waved his hand for Luthro to get up.

"What is your report?" he asked, his voice taking on the unnaturally deep tones of a Gao'uld.

Luthro stood as ordered, but kept his head bowed deferentially. As far as he was considered, this was still in essence his lord Dracula, though the other vampire was much more powerful now. "One of the humans found the crystal, my lord. We were prevented from taking the two troublesome mutants or any of the soldiers as our own." He paused; then reluctantly continued. "They somehow disabled our transportation devices, my lord; we must now traverse as do the other accursed beings on this planet."

"So you have failed." Luthro turned to see Baba's first prime stride into their wing of the museum. The Jaffa's voice was sneering as he took his place next to the vampire/Gao'uld.

Luthro felt his temper flair. "They had the crystal. It has power that you could only dream about."

The Jaffa's lip twisted in disdain. "The Tau'ri are but insects. They are incapable of being any threat to a _true _warrior." He faced Baba/Dracula. "These pathetic vampires are not worth your time, my lord."

A growl reverberated in Luthro's throat, and he could feel his fangs lengthening and his eyes glow red. _Just say that one more time…_

Baba/Dracula held up a hand in amusement, calling for peace between his two seconds-in-command. "You are both of worth to me. Alive." He put his attention on Luthro. The vampire's temper dissipated and his teeth shrunk a little in size. "How can we get to Washington if we cannot transport ourselves there?" the Gao'uld asked Luthro.

_You should know this._ The thought came unbidden to Luthro's mind, and he squashed it as unloyal. "By plane, my lord. I can make reservations. We do not," he added, "want our trip to Washington to be noticed as unusual."

Baba/Dracula nodded. "Do so. You may take your army with you and go recruiting as you go. My Jaffa and I shall meet you when you give your signal."

Luthro placed his right fist over his heart again and bowed. "As you order so I shall do."

He clicked his heels to together and turned abruptly to the door. He could feel the first prime's condescending glare boring into his back. Luthro straightened his posture even more.

_I'll show him… I'll show all his kind _and_ the humans not to underestimate a vampire…_


	10. Chapter 10

Jack slammed down the pay phone in disgust, collecting the leftover coins it spat out at him. Daniel, Sam, Rogue, and Bra'tac watched him inquiringly.

"Line's dead," he griped, shoving the coins into a pocket at random. He accepted the crystal back from Rogue. "Can't tell if it's this one or the airport's though."

"Either way," Bra'tac pointed out, "It is a bad thing, is it not?"

Daniel peeked over at Sam's shoulder at the map she had just opened up. "Where is the airport anyway?"

Sam's eyes studied the paper before her closely. "That's what I'm just trying to figure out." They stopped moving as she caught sight of something. She jabbed her finger at a point on the map. "There." She grimaced. "It's going to be a bit of a walk."

Jack forced a smile and pushed the crystal into his coat pocket, zippering it. "I guess we better get moving, then."

Luthro did not want to give too much away about his plans by biting the airport officials. He could not be sure that with the crystal the mutants and their new friends would not be able to track them whenever new vampires were made. So his followers were reduced to scare tactics to frighten the other passengers away, and settled down impatiently to wait for the flight.

_Airports are the same no matter what,_ the vampire sulked, _they always make you wait too long._

If he thought that it would further their plans, he would have bitten the offending air controllers to hurry their trip along, but Dracula's covey was understandably trying to keep a low profile. They were so close to making the United States ruled by a vampire that they couldn't risk their enemies stopping them now.

A slight rustle among his vampires distracted Luthro from his musings. "What is it?" he demanded, an involuntary chill running down his spine.

Susan, a mousy-looking woman with glasses, threw a worried look in the direction of Dracula's second-in-command. "I lost contact with Hubert and Leo outside of the airport."

"They probably just forgot that their supposed to stay in contact," a model-wannabe snorted, tossing her blond hair, "relax."

Susan's teeth lengthened and her eyes glowed red at the implied insult to her judgment. "I don't like it," she hissed.

Luthro stepped between the two of them. "We can't take anything for granted," he told the blond vampire. She pouted.

Luthro ignored her and turned to Susan. "You take Quincy, Paul, and Leon out to check it out. Keep in contact and be careful, it could be our human friends already."

"Humans are no problem," the blond protested, a little put out at his taking Susan's side.

Luthro leveled a glare at her. "With the crystal they are. Learn your place, Diana, and don't presume so much."

Susan smirked at Diana and took to air. "Quincy, Paul, Leon! We need to check on Hubert and Leo!"

The three men answered her summons, and with one last brilliant smile thrown in Luthro's direction, Susan led them out.

In the end, Jack ended up splitting up his little group even more when they reached the airport. Bra'tac and Rogue were far stronger than any of SG-1, and O'Neill hoped that her powers and his symbiote would protect them both from being turned into vampires. Besides, he felt better if they came at the building from different directions since it was no doubt filled with vampires.

"Gotcha, chief," Rogue chirped, grabbing a startled Bra'tac from behind and taking to air. Bra'tac initially struggled, but adapted quickly to this new vantage point of the battlefield.

"Keep radio silence unless you see Baba or one of you get bitten," Jack warned, "I don't want the vampires to know there's two groups."

"Understood," Bra'tac acknowledged. Rogue just threw Jack an exuberant grin and flew around to the back of the building.

Jack turned to the rest of his team. "Daniel? Carter?"

"Lemme just catch my breath…" Daniel gasped. Carter nodded in sympathy and rubbed her calves.

"It was a long walk, sir," she admitted.

"No kidding," Jack grimaced, "don't you just hate Rogue and Bra'tac for not even breathing hard? Unfortunately, kids, Earth may not have time for us to catch our breath. There's bound to be guards, and we need to take them out before they sound the alert."

"_You_ need to, you mean," Daniel pointed out, looking at the stone Jack had taken out of his pocket, "you're the one with the crystal."

"We need to mass-produce this thing," Jack griped, holding the crystal up in front of him. He started walking forward, his eyes flitting back and forth as he took in the area. Daniel and Sam fell in behind him, their all-but-worthless weapons at ready.

Daniel broke the silence again. "Uh, Jack?"

Jack didn't even slow his stride. "What?"

"Why do we need these weapons if we know they won't work against vampires?" He pushed his glasses up and looked apprehensively around.

"There might be Jaffa around, Daniel," Sam reminded him. "We can shoot them."

"And it's a comfort thing," Jack added, "Like Linus and his blanket."

Before Daniel could question the reference, Jack cut in: "Vampires up ahead."

Sure enough, two male vampires were languidly loitering around the door of the airport. One glanced up upon when he noticed their approach, and he said something to his companion, eliciting a chuckle from him. The Joker stepped forward a false smile pasted on his ugly face.

"Hey, man…" he began. The rest of the sentence died unspoken in his throat as SG-1 came closer and he saw what was in Jack's hand. His eyes widened in terror, and his hand scrambled for his cell phone. Backing up, he hurriedly tried to dial with shaking fingers.

"Oh, no you don't!" Jack announced. It had already clicked in his mind that they weren't close enough for the crystal to affect the vampires yet, and he knew that couldn't let Ugly get a hold of his friends. With a toss that would have made Roger Clemens proud, Jack flung the crystal at the vampire with all of his might. It smacked the other man in the chest, sending him sprawling, and rebounded away from Jack.

Jack didn't have a chance to curse his bad luck when Ugly's companion reacted. Obviously more angry than he was smart, the vampire didn't bother with calling for backup and rocketed toward Jack, eyes a fiery red. Jack backed up, his P-90 spitting bullets worthlessly at his attacker. "Daniel! Carter! Get a hold of that darn crystal!" he yelled anxiously over his shoulder.

He didn't bother listening for their acknowledgments as he tried to continue keeping the vampire at bay. The P-90 barely slowed him down, though, and Jack tumbled backwards as he backed off the curb. The vampire took advantage of his loss of balance to knock him down flat on the street.

The red-eyed monster smiled hungrily at him, his teeth lengthening. "This," he lisped, grabbing Jack's throat in an iron grip, "Is for Leo."

Jack wanted to challenge him, or to yell at Sam and Daniel to hurry, but he couldn't breathe and the world was going out of focus. His body wouldn't respond to his frantic orders, and all he could see were those fangs getting closer and closer…

Just as Jack thought he would pass out, he felt something cold and wet touch his neck, and then he heard a weird scream and the pressure against his throat was gone.

"Jack!" He felt himself being propped up against someone's body, and anxious hands examined his throat.

Jack squeezed his eyes shut. _Stop that; it hurts._

"He's breathing," the voice announced to another person in relief, "he's just got some saliva on his neck and a nasty bruise. Talking and breathing isn't going to be fun for a while."

"Sir, you need to respond," the other person told him, also feeling his neck, but for a pulse.

Jack's head was now beginning to clear a bit, and it was dawning on him who was talking to him. "Carter, Daniel?" he croaked, opening his eyes.

Sam pulled back her hand. "You worried us a second there, sir; you passed out."

Jack's brow crinkled. "Don't remember that," he managed, wincing at the effort. Man, it hurt to talk!

"He almost crushed your throat," Daniel explained from behind him, still supporting Jack, "Came _that close _to biting you as well."

Sam nodded and held the crystal up to where Jack could see it. "He was so busy with you, though, sir, that he didn't even notice me coming. I made sure to knock him and his friend out just in case they get any urge to get themselves vampired again."

"They might notice when these guys don't check in," Daniel added, shifting his grip on Jack, "so, whenever you think you're ready, I think we should get moving again."

Jack nodded, and started to stand up. Carter reached forward and grabbed his arm to help steady him, and Daniel kept himself pressed against Jack's back. Jack stood there a second, getting his bearings.

He nodded once more. "Okay," he whispered, "I'm fine."

Sam tentatively let go of his arm, but Daniel didn't back up. Jack decided to let that pass – for now.

"Carter," he said huskily, "you've got point with the crystal. Daniel, you and I need to stay as close to her as possible. We don't need a repeat of what _almost_ happened back there."

Carter nodded and started moving slowly ahead. Daniel finally stopped pushing against Jack, but still kept a cautious arm out ready to catch Jack in case he lost his balance.

Proud as he was, Jack wasn't going to quibble with Daniel about this now; he would have done the same for the younger man.

As the three slipped stealthily into the airport, Jack hoped the others were doing better than they were.


	11. Chapter 11

"That is indeed what he said, General Hammond; O'Neill insists that you send no more warriors."

General Hammond's voice came over faintly but concerned in the phone gripped in Teal'c's large hand. "Are you absolutely certain of that, son?" The Texan general didn't sound very pleased with this new development.

"Positive," said Teal'c in a tone that allowed no room for argument. Not many men could talk to George Hammond in such a manner, but Apophis' former First Prime was an exception.

"Alright, son, tell Colonel O'Neill to be careful. And I want SG-1 to touch base ASAP."

"Indeed." Teal'c, as always a man of few words, hung up the phone.

Gambit looked at him smugly from where he and Jacob loitered outside the phone booth. "Ain't dat better den goin' all de way back t' Colorada like O'Neill wanted us to?"

Teal'c managed a slightly agreeable grimace to accompany his raised eyebrow. "Indeed."

Jacob shifted uncomfortably and touched on what had bothered Teal'c. "I don't see why we couldn't have just paid the fare instead of overriding the system to call George without paying."

"No money," Remy pointed out dryly, as he and Jacob fell in step with the swiftly walking Teal'c.

Jacob sighed. "We could have at least knocked on someone's door or gone to a store and _asked_ to use a phone."

"No time," LeBeau responded, turning up the collar of his ankle-length duster to protect his ears from the cold.

"And no inclination," Jacob retorted. He sighed, "C'mon, Teal'c, say something. How do you stand on this?"

Teal'c seemed to think about it as he walked and studied their surroundings. "It has worked out favorably," he concluded.

Jacob groaned. "I can't believe it. Jack just paired me with the world's too most unscrupulous heroes."

Remy shrugged. "Ah'm a t'ief, _bra_, whad'ya 'spect?"

"Warriors must sometimes do what is distasteful," Teal'c added as the trio stopped on the curb next to a red Honda.

Jacob snorted. "Well, stealing a car is a little more than _distasteful_; it's against the law."

Remy let himself into the driver's seat. "Would ya have preferred t' walk, _homme_? Dat option's still open if ya conscience don' allow ya t' ride wit' Teal'c an' Gambit."

Jacob sighed once more and ducked into the back seat. "Would you quit talking about yourself in the third person, Remy? It's demented."

"So's havin' a snake in ya head an ya stomach," Remy retorted as he hotwired the car. The Honda roared to life. Remy looked over his shoulder as he backed up the car a bit. Teal'c and Jacob buckled their seatbelts. "Ya don' hear _me_ complainin'," the young Cajun finished.

He pulled out of their parking space and pulled into the street. There was rubble all over the road, and buildings collapsed along its sides.

"It is a different matter," Teal'c pointed out as soon as Remy finished maneuvering around a particularly large piece of rubble, "We are of need of these… snakes… to survive."

Remy shrugged, sparing the man next to him the smallest of glances. "_Mais_, English ain't mah first language so bear wit' me, _hahn_?"

"Where's the airport?" Jacob asked Teal'c, suddenly tired of this give-and-take.

Teal'c looked back at Jacob momentarily; then looked ahead again. "I do not know," he finally admitted.

Jacob couldn't believe it. "What?"

"This is not my planet," Teal'c explained, "and Majorcarter has the map."

Remy looked back at Jacob in the review mirror. "Looks like we got ourselves anuder stop to make, _mes amis_."

Jacob groaned and squeezed the bridge of his nose with his fingers. "I don't suppose," he ventured, "we could ask for the map before we steal it?"

The airport seemed unusually quiet passenger-wise to SG-1, but the desk people seemed just as normal. Sam stepped up to the desk and easily obtained eight tickets for D.C.

"There are suddenly quite a few vacancies for that plane," the woman at the desk said in a chipper tone of voice.

"Gee," Jack mumbled in spite of his throat-ache as they headed for their waiting room, "I wonder why."

"Smart-aleck remarks are only going to hurt you, Jack," Daniel warned, smothering a slightly uncharitable grin. Now that Jack's immediate danger was over, it was kind of funny that his injury was in such a place that it would prevent the usually big-mouthed colonel from talking without discomfort. It was ironically fitting.

Jack gave him a wordless glare. Sam managed to keep a straight face better than Daniel. If she thought the situation was funny, she wasn't letting her C.O. see it.

Just as Sam reached the door she froze. Daniel and Jack had to screech to a halt to keep from walking into her.

"Sir," she hissed, blue eyes wide as they focused on something inside the room that the men couldn't see.

"What is it, Carter?" Jack croaked. Daniel stopped grinning, concern lighting his own eyes.

Sam got a better grip on the crystal and backed even closer into the guys. She couldn't hold back a shiver.

"The waiting room, sir. It's full of vampires."

It was a time to say something either brilliant or witty, and Jack couldn't think up anything that was either. The two men just stared at Sam.

"Well," Daniel finally said, "that's just… GREAT."

"Right…" Jack agreed, his throat aching with the effort. He rubbed the bruise self-consciously. "Well, sometimes boldness is the only way… alright, kids, here's what we're going to do. Carter, you're going to take point, but Daniel and I are going to be on either side of you – almost in your pocket. We're going to grab three seats very close to each other, and wait there until are flight comes. If we have to, we'll fly in with Baba and try to take him out on the plane."

Daniel began to shake his head. Jack spoke before he could protest. "Yeah, I know; it's not perfect, but it's all we got. Carter?"

Sam grimaced. "I can't think up anything better, sir. And we _do_ have Bra'tac and Rogue as our rabbits in the hat. I'm ready to go for it as soon as you are."

"Good girl," Jack said approvingly, "Daniel?"

Daniel sighed. "I don't like it," he admitted, "but I guess I'll have to agree with Sam. I'm ready when you two are."

Jack nodded at Carter, and, after she tightened her grip on the crystal, she took a deep breath and stepped forward. They moved like one, matching stride for stride as they entered their enemies' lair. A mousy-looking female vampire screeched as she nearly ran into them, and she and three males swerved away, shivering and glaring. A blond gasped and all eyes were immediately on them.

Jack threw everyone in the room a big smile with some of that O'Neill charm. "Hey, kids, mind if we join the party?"


	12. Chapter 12

"The flight is scheduled to leave in about four hours, my lord," Luthro's voice announced over Dracula/Baba's cell phone, "The plane has also been cleared for your convenience. It shall just carry you and your chosen companions."

The vampire/Gao'uld smiled toothily. His fangs glinted in the light of the museum. "Very good, Luthro. I shall look forward to joining you with my Jaffa on the plane."

Luthro's voice tightened. "You do not need the Jaffa with your vampires, my lord. We would die for you."

Dracula/Baba rubbed his hand against the smooth arm of his throne. The sphinx-like cats on display seemed to share his amusement. "As I well appreciate, Luthro. But the humans, they have the crystal which affects my vampires. The Jaffa will not be affected, and if you and yours are taken out, they will be my next line of defense."

"Well, if it is for your defense in case of our demise, my lord…" Luthro tried to sound satisfied, but failed utterly.

Dracula/Baba laughed softly. "I shall see you in a few hours, Luthro."

"In a few hours, my lord."

As soon as Luthro signed off, the vampire/Gao'uld's eyes glowed and Baba took full control.

_It is difficult,_ the Gao'uld mused, _to keep up this charade. Luthro, loyal though he is, grows suspicious. My Jaffa might not be able to hold him back should he get violent. As for the host…_ Baba used Dracula's lips to frown. _He is difficult in the extreme to control. He has a strong mind, and there is no sarcophagus on this accursed planet to weaken it with. If I can't take it over soon and use its Stargate to find a sarcophagus, he might regain control. _

"My lord?"

Bel'tec, his First Prime, interrupted his thoughts. "Yes, Bel'tec?"

"I do not believe the vampires are to be trusted. I beg you to allow us to destroy them." Bel'tec's voice was earnest, and his face showed his desire to please and defend his god.

Baba smiled again, and somewhere in this body, Dracula fumed over his inability to stop such a minor movement on Baba's part. "They are useful at the moment," the Gao'uld told Bel'tec, "when I am done with them, you may destroy them."

Bel'tec stood before him, head bowed, waiting for more. Baba's patience evaporated. "That is all, Bel'tec."

As his First Prime jerked and quickly exited, Baba watched his retreating back sulkily. _Apophis' First Prime, _he thought gloomily, _was so much better trained; so much more dignified; so much more intelligent._ He sighed as he rubbed his forehead. _Perhaps, when I have gained this world, I can overthrow Apophis and take his Prime._

That put a smile on Dracula's face. Yes, that was what Baba would do. Within the body, Baba could feel Dracula's mind shove at him in frustration. The smile disappeared.

His plans would have to wait while he dealt with the stubborn vampire.

No one said anything or objected as the trio entered farther into the room. Everyone gave them a wide berth, and SG-1 had no trouble finding convenient seats.

Jack flashed the closest vampires a smug smile as Sam passed him back the crystal. "Thanks," he said, speaking to both her and their gathered enemies.

Sam rolled her eyes, and Daniel looked around the room nervously. "Jack," he hissed, gripping his backpack convulsively, "They're all staring at us and you're provoking them."

"They can't anything about it anyway," Jack pointed out, "They don't even like being near the crystal."

He had a valid point. There were several empty seats between SG-1 and everyone else in the waiting room, and the vampires cringed everyone time one of the humans made the slightest move toward them. All of them did, but one girl, that is.

Near Jack sat a young, college-aged vampire who had determinedly kept her seat when SG-1 had moved into the waiting room. The vampire between her and the colonel had vacated his seat when Jack had come closer, but although the young vampiress cringed whenever Jack looked at her, but she refused to move.

The vampire and the colonel stared at each other in silence. Then, to his surprise, she spoke to him. "Are you a doctor?" she asked, nodding Jack's hands.

Jack blinked. "Huh?"

Daniel snickered softly at that idea, and Sam smothered a smile. Jack threw them both a stern look and they went back to keeping an eye on the vampires.

The vampire girl ignored the other two. "You carry a stethoscope," she said, reaching to touch something in his hands.

O'Neill pulled back a bit, simultaneously peeking down at the crystal that suddenly felt like it was buzzing in his hands.

_Well, I'll be darned… it _does_ look like a stethoscope now!_ he thought admiringly. Apparently the Vwaq had made the crystal capable of enticing particular vampires according to their personal interests. _Might also be a camouflage device…_

Once more, Jack realized how little he knew about his weapon. With an effort, he gathered his thoughts together once more, and regretfully covered the crystal-stethoscope with his hand. "Better not touch that," he said.

The young vampire blinked, surprised. "Why not? I have to stay like this" – she fingered her fangs – "if I don't, and they don't accept vampires in doctor schools." She sounded upset. "I thought you came to help us victims."

"You're able to fight it?" Jack was cautiously optimistic.

She gave him a sad smile. "I'm not a full vampire yet," she explained, "I won't be until I first feed on human blood. Then I'll be as mindless as these others."

"Help me," she whispered, leaning closer to him.

Jack pulled back even more, almost smacking heads with Sam. Sam leaned into Daniel to keep from getting a headache. "Can't," he said, "if I do that, a battle will start, and there are too many non-vampires working here who will get hurt. This isn't the time or the place." He didn't like saying it, but he had to prioritize and put the fate of the nation first.

Her eyes flashed and she tried to reach for the crystal anyway. "But…"

A shadow suddenly fell over Jack and the young girl, and they both looked up. Luthro stared down at them, sufficiently out of Jack's reach, but close enough to be unnerving. The girl squeaked and slid away from Jack, finally leaving her seat when Luthro didn't leave. Unnoticed, the crystal-stethoscope in Jack's hands returned to its original form.

"Luthro," Jack said, forcing a smile, "Buddy." His eyes were hard, however, with the calculating look of his Black Ops days.

"I see that you have been trying to seduce one of my vampires away from the covey," Luthro's voice showed displeasure, and, even across the room, the young doctor-want-to-be trembled.

"Seduce is such a strong word," Jack dawdled. Beside him Carter and Daniel had now sat up to full attention. In his peripheral view, the colonel could see Sam's hand resting lightly on her P-90 and Daniel's gripping a bottle of holy water. He jerked his finger right and left, and his teammates each faithfully picked side of the room to cover as best they could from where they sat.

"It is indeed," replied the vampire, with hypocritical pleasantness, "And so I must apologize. I must also apologize, I'm afraid, for inconveniencing you. My lord has need of your flight for him and his attendants, and so you must be put up here at the airport until another flight is available."

Jack stiffened, his instincts screaming bloody murder. "Oh, I'm sure we can make arrangements so that both of us can make our flight."

"I'm afraid not. But my lord shall provide the rooms to keep you satisfied until a flight does become available to you." The false smile on the vampire's face looked ominous to Jack.

Daniel glanced up briefly from where he was faithfully covering and hissed. "Trap."

_Ya think?_ "That's okay," Jack said to the vampire, casually shifting the crystal in his hands. Luthro hissed softly.

"I insist." The vampire signaled his covey closer. The whole room closed in on SG-1.

"Sir?" Sam whispered, her eyes never leaving her side of the room. Her voice was understandably nervous. Even with the crystal, their odds of keeping the whole room off of them were very slim. Eventually they would fall.

Regretfully, Jack reaffirmed his assessment that being back into a waiting room corner with a whole covey of vampires upon them was not the best situation for a standoff. "Well… if you insist."

The vampires didn't back off, but at least they didn't press any closer upon them either.

"Follow me," Luthro smiled toothily. SG-1 unwillingly got up, Sam and Daniel pressing closely against Jack. They were herded into a small room attached to the main waiting room – probably an overflow waiting room. There were no windows, and the only exit was through the main waiting room.

"I have to write a note," Sam spoke up suddenly. The vampires and the men in her group stared at her as if she had grown two heads.

"Carter?" Jack asked. _What's up?_

"Why?" Luthro demanded simultaneously.

"I need to tell the General not to send any more people and that the mission should be scrubbed," Sam fibbed. _Work with me, sir, __**please**_.

Jack quickly caught at least part of the meaning behind the stare she gave him. He passed Daniel the crystal.

"Daniel," he ordered, "Go into that room. Make sure there are no surprises waiting for us. I'll stay here with Carter." He rested his hand casually, albeit uselessly on his P-90.

Luthro stepped aside to grant Sam access to the information desk, and several vampires hovered over her shoulder as she painstakingly composed a note that would give sufficient warning to Bra'tac and Rogue, but also not get edited or trashed by the vampires.

She finally straightened up, leaving the note open on the desk. One of Luthro's vampires scanned it over and gave his boss a thumb's up signal. "It's okay, boss." At Luthro's nod, he shoved the letter into the home-made envelope Sam had addressed, and flew off to find the nearest post office or mail carrier to coerce.

Luthro turned to Sam. "You've written your note; now go in their with your friends."

With three vampires breathing down her neck, Sam didn't waste any time, and Jack grabbed her arm to hurry her along. "Daniel?" he asked.

"It's clear in here." Relieved, the two officers quickly joined the archeologist deep inside the smaller room. As soon as none of SG-1 could see the waiting room anymore, Luthro posted some guards out of sight and left, apparently preparing to hurry up the flight.

The three humans sat on the plush couch and looked at each other. All they had left to do was wait and hope that Rogue and Bra'tac were more successful than they were.

**TO BE CONTINUED….**


	13. Chapter 13

It was a breeze for Rogue and Bra'tac to evade the three vampires Luthro had sent out to check up on the guards taken out by SG-1. Sneaking wasn't much of her thing, but even Rogue had to admit that subterfuge was the better option in this case. As soon as they were inside the building, she let the old Jaffa warrior down on his feet, and they snuck in the shadows of the deserted and slightly wrecked end of the airport. Apparently the building hadn't gone completely untouched during the attack on the city.

Bra'tac stiffened suddenly. "Someone's coming," he told the girl. Rogue froze from where she was on the other side of the hallway, ears straining to pick up what the Jaffa had.

Finally she did, but only just before the vampire was upon them.

He was just as surprised as she was, and with a pathetic yelp dropped the paper in his hand. Rogue took to air immediately, gripping his arm and pummeling his head.

"Find cover!" she ordered Bra'tac.

The old Jaffa didn't listen, instead hefting up his backpack and swinging it with all his considerable strength at the vampire. Between him and Rogue, the vampire had no chance, and he dropped on the floor, senseless a few minutes later.

Rogue tentatively felt for a pulse. "He's breathin'." Her gloved hand came up bloody. She grimaced. "An' he ain't a full vampire yet; he's still able t' bleed. That's probably why we got him so easy."

Bra'tac tossed her a disbelieving look at her assessment of the fight's ease, and knelt down on the floor to retrieve the paper that the vampire had dropped.

Rogue set down behind him, looking over his shoulder. "It's a letter," she breathed in his ear.

He glanced at the writing on it, brows furrowed, and passed it on to her. "I do not read your world's symbols," he explained.

Rogue took the paper from him and placed it on her knee, flattening it to smooth out the folds. "_General, plan failed. Whole team captured. Crystal doesn't work like scientist said it would. Daniel wrong as always. Captain Samantha Carter."_ She shrugged. "Don't make any sense t' me. Kinda unnecessarily mean too."

In the background, Bra'tac could hear a female voice unemotionally announce something over the loudspeaker, but he ignored it. Something wasn't quite right about the note…

"It's a code," he said suddenly.

Rogue looked at him, waiting. "Carter is a Major," the old warrior explained, "And Danieljackson is greatly respected by his colleagues. And he is a studier of history and language, not a scientist."

"An' we ain't captured," Rogue finished, "an' neither are Remy, Jacob, or Teal'c. So, she is basically trying to let her boss or us know that she and th' guys ran into trouble an' might need backup or a whole 'nother team," Rogue mused, "the words are really jus' window-dressin'."

"Most likely, she is also saying that Danieljackson's theory about Baba's plan is correct as well," Bra'tac agreed.

Rogue grabbed his arm and spun him toward a stairwell. Before Bra'tac could retaliate or demand an explanation, she pointed at a sign. "Waiting room for flight A, this way," she said, "An' the lady over the loudspeaker said that flight A for DC would leave in about an hour. We don' have much time."

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

Sam was beyond getting embarrassed now; four years of spending every work day and numerous work nights with her male teammates camping off-world made her pretty much immune to fits of self-consciousness. So Jack's plan for the way to handle the watching rotation this night had barely rated a shrug for her. In fact, the guys had seemed more uncomfortable than she had been.

A naughty little smirk crossed her face as Sam remembered their discussion before they settled down for the night.

"_Normal rotation, kids, me first, then Carter, and then Daniel." Jack ordered as he and Sam had settled on the couch._

_Daniel passed the crystal back to Jack. "How that going to work, Jack? Is the person awake just going to be posted by the door with the crystal and just pray that the vampires don't get brave enough to zoom past and out of the crystal's range to his sleeping teammates? I don't like that plan."_

"_Er… actually that's not the plan." Jack mumbled, quickly glancing toward Sam; then glancing away again._

_Sam threw her C.O. a strange look. "What is the plan, then, sir?"_

_Jack looked uncomfortable, but didn't waste too much time spelling it out. "It's gonna be a little __**close**__ for your liking, Carter. To be all within the range of crystal, we're going to have to all three sleep on the couch together."_

"_Oh." Daniel turned a rather becoming shade of red and suddenly found that his glasses had a speck on them that needed some vigorous cleaning._

_Sam tried not to laugh aloud at their different ways of showing their rather gentlemanly embarrassment. She personally had no qualms about Jack's plan; it was practical and she couldn't see her C.O. or the archeologist trying anything on her. Jack and she had been forced sleep close together when they were stuck in Antarctica to keep from freezing, and they had had no problems, while Daniel was like a brother to her and the most trust-worthy people alive. The very idea that she had something to worry about was laughable. The Major gulped down her amusement with difficulty; no need to bruise their male egos._

"_I'll manage, sir," she said solemnly._

So here they were, Daniel and Jack on either side of her on the couch, with Sam seated in the middle with the crystal. In a few more hours she would wake up Daniel, and get some more sleep until he woke them all up in the morning. She was tired, and was counting the minutes until she could shake the said archeologist into wakefulness.

Sam rolled her head on the back of the couch to get the crick out of her neck, accidentally nudging Daniel's head with the movement. The linguist murmured something in Abydosian or some other language in his sleep, and merely shifted his position. Sam smiled – it would take some active shaking to get him awake. On her other side, some soft snoring was issuing from the Colonel, but she knew that, unlike Daniel, he would be wide awake at the most minute sound. In fact, she would not be terrible surprised if she were to find out that he was judging in his sleep how potentially dangerous the surrounding noises were to his team.

Now everything about her stance seemed uncomfortable and, rather than waking Jack, she nudged the completely un-wake-able Daniel with her hip, prompting him to move over once more in his sleep, allowing her more space on the couch. Just as she was moving the crystal into another position and getting settled, Sam thought she caught a glimpse of something out the door and heard a soft thump.

She gripped the crystal tighter and sat up at attention. _Hello, what was that?_

"Carter?" Jack's breath was warm against her face. It took all her self-control not to jump. Either her body's suddenly stiffening up woke him up, or the noise she had heard had done so.

"I think I heard something, sir," she explained in an undertone, "I might have caught a glimpse of it as well. It hasn't come in here yet, what ever it is."

"Good girl," he whispered, pulling his P-90 at ready, "wake up Daniel."

Ignoring thoughts of how worthless the Colonel's gun was if the vampires were coming to dispose of them, Sam nodded and shoved lightly at her slumbering friend. Daniel jumped, but was kept from exclaiming by Sam's hand over his mouth. The civilian's blue eyes met those of the Air Force Major, and he cocked his head, his expression promising not to yell, while still asking questions.

Sam removed her hand from his mouth. "Visitors," she mouthed at him.

Daniel nodded, his hand finding and gripping his Holy Water with determination. Although they would have ordinarily split up, this time the team stuck together, standing up and keeping the couch and the wall to their backs so that no one could sneak up behind them. They couldn't take the chance of being flanked or of one or the other of them being herded away from the crystal's protective influence to be dealt with by the vampires.

An open staff weapon head poked through the door. SG-1 tensed for combat.

"Daniel? Sam? Jack? Y'all in there?" Rogue's southern accent hit SG-1's muscles like a relaxer. The guys lowered their weapons, and the staff weapon in the doorway closed and disappeared from view.

"We're here, Rogue," Sam called back, stepping forward, "I suppose you took care of the vampires watching us?"

"Got it in one, sugah, we had some help as well," Rogue proudly entered the room with – surprisingly enough – the young vampire Jack had talked to in the waiting room at her side.

"I decided to help you guys," the not-quite-vampire said shyly.

Jack grinned, relieved to see them – all of them. "Welcome to the good side."

Bra'tac came in behind his female companions. "The guards have been taken care of," he said brusquely, "but we must leave quickly. There are still other vampires in the waiting room."

"They're asleep," Rogue explained, tossing her white-striped auburn hair as she motioned with her head toward the entrance.

"Sweet," Jack muttered, lifting his P-90 again, "So we'll have to fight our way out."

"We will not," Bra'tac contradicted, "although we will have to move quickly since our exit will not be noiseless."

"What?" Daniel questioned, while Jack began at the same time: "Bra'tac?"

Bra'tac ignored the two of them, as he reopened his staff weapon and brought it into a firing position. One shot brought down the wall the service desk was lined up against, and a second sent the two walls separating them from the waiting room down. While he was working, Rogue punched through the floor and motioned the others to follow her through the hole.

Daniel, Jack, and Sam looked at each other, and, with a shrug Jack gripped the edges of the hole and lowered himself down. Once he was hanging over the floor below, he let himself drop, his knees complaining at the contact in spite of his professional fall. Daniel and Sam followed closely behind him, while Bra'tac and the former vampire came through last, covering up the hole as best they could.

Rogue grabbed Jack and Daniel's arms. "C'mon, fellas, we gotta get to that plane before Luthro an' th' others do."

She led them to a nearby elevator and didn't even bother waiting for it to come to their level. Letting go of the two guys, she pried the doors open. The trio looked down, with Sam peeking over their shoulders.

Jack backed up into Sam and motioned gallantly toward the elevator with his hand. "Ladies first," he said to Rogue, trying not to sound too nervous. The drop looked LOOONG.

Rogue cocked a knowing eyebrow at them. "Of course." She turned to Daniel. "Mind bein' mah escort, sugah?"

Daniel didn't know quite what she had in mind, but decided to trust her judgment. "Uh… sure."

Rogue smiled beatifically at her allies, and then grabbed Daniel around the waist. "Here we go," she crowed, and as Daniel gasped they dropped down the elevator shaft.

The darkness soon swallowed them up, and after a few tense moments, Jack called down. "Daniel? You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," came the slightly giddy reply from down below, "Rogue's coming up to get the rest of you now."

"Wait a second," Jack protested, "I don't like the idea of you being down there alone." In his mind's eye he could just see Daniel being attacked by a bunch of vampires while he was alone and without any protection.

"I'll take Major Carter down," the young former vampire spoke up, "and then Rogue or I could come for you and Master Bra'tac."

Jack thought about that and nodded. He shrugged. "Cool. Carter?"

"Yessir." Sam lifted up her arms so the other woman could grab her around the waist, and together they plummeted down the elevator shaft. A few minutes later Rogue came up and floated gently above the drop. She scrutinized Bra'tac and Jack.

"Ah can take ya fellas both down at once," she offered finally, "It'll save us another trip."

Jack was well aware of how little time they had to play with and quickly agreed. "Okay."

He and Bra'tac stepped up close to the edge of the shaft and Rogue grabbed them each around the wrist. Both her passengers reached up with their free hand to grab her around the wrist as well. If she was insulted by their need for more security, she didn't show it.

"Here we go," the girl smiled.

The ride was interesting with three people, and Jack and Bra'tac hit the walls of the shaft and the elevator line several times before they landed softly on the floor.

The first thing Jack noticed when his eyes adjusted to the light was the fact the others weren't waiting for them right by the shaft, but in a waiting room of sorts.

Sam rushed over to join them. "Sir, we've got to hurry if we want to make that flight." She motioned frantically with her arm. "The flight field is over there."

Daniel, who had been conspicuously absent during the exchange shook his head as he entered the waiting room from the outside. "Never mind," he said grimly.

Jack did _not_ like that tone. "Never mind what?"

"We're going to have to find a different ride," Daniel clarified. The others stared at him in frustration and horror.

The archeologist grimaced; he hated being the bearer of bad news.

"They've already left."

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


End file.
